HIV and Public Health
Public health involves a number of factors; it is a science that aims to improve and educate the public in many aspects regarding health. A public health issue that can affect anyone anywhere is the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Public Health and HIV is a topic widely researched. Since there is no cure for such a disease, it is important to research and study this virus in hopes of bettering the outcomes for those inflicted with it. Ultimately, HIV can be prevented which is why it is necessary to raise awareness¬ to the public about the disease. After approximately thirty years since the first documentation of AIDS, there are still some misconceptions about HIV such as its potential dangers as well as the unequal
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It is now known that HIV is transmitted through the exchange of bodily fluids (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services [HHS], 2012). Among blood and other bodily fluids, HIV transmission can occur through semen and breast milk (HHS, 2012). A person can become infected with HIV if they engage in sexual contact with an infected person since there is an exchange of bodily fluids (HHS, 2012). HIV can also be passed from mother to child during pregnancy or after birth when breastfeeding (HHS, 2012). In addition, a person can get HIV from injecting drugs in to their body, blood transfusions, and exposure to it in health care settings (HHS, 2012). However, the most common way that HIV is transmitted is still through sexual …show more content…
According to the CDC, almost 1.1 million people in the United States have HIV, yet almost 20% of those people are unaware that they are living with the condition (CDC, 2013c). When the HIV broke out almost 30 years ago in the United States, the number of new cases in a year was 130,000. Now, each year the new number of cases being presented is approximately 50,000 (CDC, 2013c). In locations like Sub-Saharan Africa, the statistics are higher. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) states, “In 2011, an estimated 23.5 million people living with HIV resided in sub-Saharan Africa, representing 69% of the global HIV burden” (UNAIDS, 2012). The World Health Organization (WHO) reinforces this point by saying, “Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected region [of HIV], with nearly 1 in every 20 adults living with HIV. Sixty nine per cent of all people living with HIV are living in this region” (WHO, 2013a). The statistics of infected people living in the United States is alarming but there are other countries, like Africa, which have higher rates of HIV due to very limited
It is crucial to understand that, unlike most transmissible diseases, AIDS/HIV is not transmitted through sneezing, coughing, eating or drinking from common utensils, or even being around an infected person. Casual contact with AIDS/HIV infected persons does not place others at risk. HIV/AIDS can be passed through unprotected sex with an infected person, sharing contaminated needles, from infected mother to baby during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding, and through direct exposure to infected blood or blood
Statistics have been show a frightening increase in AIDS/HIV cases. As of the year 2012, South Africa has had the most cases of HIV/AIDS coming to a total of 6,070,800 ("Country Comparison :: HIV/AIDS”). This is a huge contributing factor to this conspira...
Public health may be defined as “a social and political concept aimed at the improving the quality of life among the whole population through health promotion, disease prevention and other forms of health intervention”.(1) The purpose of public health practice is to improve the health of society rather than individuals and reduce health disparities between individuals, groups, and communities through organized effort of the communities, individuals and organizations. As Marmot points out: “creating a fairer society is fundamental to improving the health of the population and ensuring a fairer distribution of good health”.(2) Besides this, the public health field is expanding to tackling new and contemporary risks: obesity, sexually transmitted
According to Mayo clinic, AIDS is a life threatening disease. It comes about as result of the Human immunodeficiency Virus and gives rise to this disease (AIDS) in which has no known cure yet. By hindering and plaguing the Human Immune system, the HIV virus disrupts the immune system and severely reduces the body’s ability to ward off other diseases and infections, which in turn lead to the body being infected easier and easier contraction of diseases in the environment. HIV virus is contracted mainly through sexual intercourse, that is, by means of Vaginal/Anal intercourse as well, but not commonly, through oral sex. HIV can also be contracted and spread through pregnancy. While delivering the child, the mother exposes the offspring to the infection and, through that means, causes the child to be infected with the virus. A child can also contract the virus via being breastfed by the infected mother. The HIV virus can lay dormant and, in some cases, take years before it affects the Human Immune system significantly enough for an individual to get AIDS. HIV/AIDS has a negative impact in a variety of ways. According to Danziger, the areas of impact include: economic and demographic; labor productivity; agricultural production and development; pressures on the health sector; the role of families and households; children; women; discrimination on the basis of an individual having HIV/AIDS; and the impact of HIV/AIDS on the individual.
HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus; this virus can lead to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. According to Avert, 2.6 million people became infected with HIV in 2009, there are now an estimated 33.3 million people around the world who are living with HIV. HIV is transmitted by the exchange of bodily fluids via sharing contaminated syringes, from the infected mother to the child, and sexual contact. Contact with blood, semen, vaginal secretions, breast milk, or saliva that is contaminated with HIV, puts an individual at higher risk for contracting HIV. However, HIV cannot be transmitted by touch, coughing, or by bits from insect vectors.
A person who is HIV-infected carries the virus in certain body fluids, including blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and breast milk. The virus can be transmitted only if such HIV-infected fluids enter the bloodstream of another person. This kind of direct entry can occur (1) through the linings of the vagina, rectum, mouth, and the opening at the tip of the penis; (2) through intravenous injection with a syringe; or (3) through a break in the skin, such as a cut or sore. Usually, HIV is transmitted through:
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) are generally transmitted through sexual contact, during unprotected sexual intercourse, some are also transmitted from mother to child during antenatal, intranatal and postnatal period and through unsafe blood, blood products, donated organs or tissues and contaminated needles, their consequences are more devastating and prevalent among women than men.1
HIV, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is a progressive disease that attacks and weakens the immune system causing the HIV-positive person to become more susceptible to any ailments and infections. Human Immunodeficiency Virus is caused by the transfer of bodily functions including blood, breast milk, semen, and vaginal secretions. Sex, including oral, vaginal, and anal, is the most common way of obtaining HIV. It can also be acquired by injecting a needle into your body that was used by someone who has HIV. The virus cannot be spread through the air or though food and water. You also cannot contract the virus from shaking a HIV-posit...
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, commonly known as HIV/AIDS is a disease, with which the human immune system, unlike in other disease, cannot cope. AIDS, which is caused by the HIV virus, causes severe disorder of the immune system and slowly progresses through stages which disable the body’s capability to protect and instead makes it vulnerable for other infections. The first blood sample to contain HIV was drawn in 1959 in Zaire, Africa while molecular genetics have suggested that the epidemic first began in the 1930s (Smallman & Brown, 2011). Currently, according to the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS, 35.3 million people worldwide are living with HIV. In 2012, an estimated 2.3 million people became newly infected with the virus and 1.6 million people lost their lives to AIDS (Fact Sheet, UNAIDS). It is due to the globalized international society that a disease which existed in one part of the world has managed to infect so many around the world. Globalization is narrowly defined by Joseph Stiglitz as "the removal of barriers to free trade and the closer integration of national economies" (Stiglitz, 2003). Globalization has its effects in different aspects such as economy, politics, culture, across different parts of the world. Like other aspects, globalization affects the health sector as well. In a society, one finds different things that connect us globally. As Barnett and Whiteside point out (2000), “health and wellbeing are international concerns and global goods, and inherent in the epidemic are lessons to be learned regarding collective responsibility for universal human health” (Barnett & Whiteside, 2000). Therefore, through all these global connections in the international society, t...
The AIDS virus is the most common disease, and with no cure, an infected person will die. It is estimated that 90 to 95 percent of AIDS infections occur in developing countries where the world’s worst living conditions exist.
The purpose of this paper is to exam a Healthy People 2020 health topic. This paper will discuss HIV; human immunodeficiency virus. This paper will assess, interpret, justify, evaluate and appraise HIV disease, its history, health statistics, preventive measures, the role of the nurse and finally an appraisal of the health programs and availability of supportive care.
In United States, the HIV epidemic reached its peak in the 1980s when the number of infected reached 130,000 people per year. Infected women ...
Most people recently infected by the AIDS virus look and feel healthy. They may not show symptoms for several years, but the condition is eventually fatal. Even though one might not know that they have this deathly disease, and remain apparently healthy, they can still pass it along to others, and they then pass it on to others, etc, until an abundant amount of people are infected. Symptoms may include fever, fatigue, weight loss, skin rashes, a fungal infection of the mouth known as thrush, lack of resistance to infection, and swollen lymph nodes. HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is transmitted through blood, semen, and vaginal fluid. The virus is usually transferred through sexual intercourse, the transfusion of virus-contaminated blood, or the sharing of HIV-contaminated intravenous needles. HIV cannot penetrate intact bodily surfaces, such as skin, and quickly perishes outside the human body. Consequently, AIDS is not spread by casual physical contact.
Without proper knowledge and equipment, it is very difficult to prevent the spread of AIDS. Ever since the illness was discovered thirty years ago, it has taken the lives of thirty million people and affected the lives of many, many more. The AIDS pandemic has been and still is most severe in third-world countries in sub-Saharan Africa. It has impacted the economies of entire nations by crippling and killing individuals in the most productive years of their lives (“HIV/AIDS”). AIDS greatly influences the government sector, agricultural sector, private corporations, and individual households.
The emergence of HIV/AIDS is viewed globally as one of the most serious health and developmental challenges our society faces today. Being a lentivirus, HIV slowly replicates over time, attacking and wearing down the human immune system subsequently leading to AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) at which point the affected individual is exposed to life threatening illnesses and eventual death. Despite the fact that a few instances of this disease have been accounted for in all parts of the world, a high rate of the aforementioned living with HIV are situated in either low or medium wage procuring nations. The Sub-Saharan region Africa is recognized as the geographic region most afflicted by the pandemic. In previous years, people living with HIV or at risk of getting infected did not have enough access to prevention, care and treatment neither were they properly sensitized about the disease. These days, awareness and accessibility to all the mentioned (preventive methods, care etc.) has risen dramatically due to several global responses to the epidemic. An estimated half of newly infected people are among those under age 25(The Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic). It hits hard as it has no visible symptoms and can go a long time without being diagnosed until one is tested or before it is too late to manage.