African Americans, HIV and AIDA Essay

The term Human Immunodeficiency Virus is commonly known as (HIV), which is a virus that attacks the immune system of humans by destroying the amount of CD4 cells in their bodies. Without CD4 the human body is unable to fight against diseases, which can lead to Acquired Immune deficiency syndrome known as AIDS for short. The first case of the HIV/AIDS virus in the U.S. occurred in the early 1980’s. The first spark of the virus was found in San Francisco with couple of homosexual Caucasian American males. Today African Americans account for the largest proportion of HIV and AIDS in this country, represent approximately 13% of the U.S. population, but accounted for an estimated 44% of new HIV infections in 2010(the last year a study was

​African-Americans are the ethnic group most affected by HIV/AIDS. Ironically african-americans represent 14% of the population of the United States , but represent 44% across the gender line. African-american men represent 70% of HIV infections among the ethnic group, however african-american women are also highly at risk of HIV infection. Indeed they have a rate of infection that is 15 times greater than the rate for caucasion women (HIV among African-Americans, 2012). Most African-american women (85%) are infected with HIV through heterosexual sex, often with partners, who claim to be

HIV/AIDS is a disease with social, psychological and physiological consequences for those impacted by the illness. The impact of HIV and AIDS among African American women has been devastating. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC, 2010) reports that black women represent 29% of the estimated new HIV infections among all adult and adolescent African Americans and HIV/AIDS is the third leading cause of death for black women ages 25?44. Several

This article focuses on what comprises an effective and efficient preventative education program as it relates to HIV/STD prevention relative to sexual activity. Techniques of teaching are taught to reinforce the behaviors and activities that lead to the spread of HIV and AIDS.

Many people are unaware of their health status further increasing transmission of disease in young adult African American(AA) women age 18-24. Human Immunodeficiency Viruses (HIV) infects and also destroy blood cells (i.e. lymphocytes) that the body need to fight off infection (Mays 2011). African American women HIV positive, age 18-24 the magnitude of issue of the health disparity in this particular population will be addressed along with the many factors of social and health determinants. The health concern is towards the increase of transmission among young AA mothers and their children who are the health outcomes in many ways than one. The many social and health determinants that affect the women today are on going cycles that have yet to be broken. African American women make 64% of new infection cases for HIV. African american obtain a vulnerability unlike other minorities. The health population’s culture and stigma has played an important role in the community. The concern for AA women is the increase of new cases and most importantly the spread of the disease to these women’s children. The mortality rate of AA women with HIV is 47.1% as of 2012. (Siddiqi 2015)

SLIDE 1: So why are we targeting low-income black and Hispanic adolescent females you may ask? They are at higher risk, than other ethnicities, for acquiring an STD and/or experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. Increased utilization of dual contraception is of great importance in these communities. Adolescent females in general are less likely to use dual forms of protection from STD’s and unplanned pregnancy. Young women, due to their anatomy tend to be more susceptible to STD’s than are young men. Black and Hispanic females are 4.9x and 2.1x, respectively, more likely to contract chlamydia (which is a common STD) than their white counterparts. When it comes to pregnancy 3 in 10 adolescent females will become pregnant before the age of 20, amongst black and Hispanic young women this figure jumps to 5 in 10. Black and Hispanics teens are more likely to be living in poverty than are other ethnicities and data has shown that teen pregnancy increases proportionally as socioeconomic status declines as does rate of STD contraction.

According to recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 1.2 million individuals in the United States have HIV (about 14 percent of which are unaware of their infection and another 1.1 million have progressed to AIDS. Over the past decade, the number of HIV cases in the US has increased, however, the annual number of cases remains stable at about 50, 000 new cases per year. Within these estimates, certain groups tend to carry the burden of these disease, particularly the gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men (MSM) and among race/ethnic groups, Blacks/African American males remain disproportionately affected. (CDC)

According to a report published in the February 1998 edition of “Nature”, scientists identified what they believe is the earliest case of AIDs in a man from the Congo in 1959. (Lerner and Hombs 39) By the end of the year 1980, 80 men would have been diagnosed with at least of the opportunistic infections that are a characteristic of AIDs. (Lerner and Hombs 40) AIDs cases in the 1980s increased dramatically not only around the world but in the United States, primarily in larger cities like Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco. The numbers of AIDs diagnoses and deaths spiraled out of control throughout the 1980s and towards the end of 1989 there were 117,500 cases of AIDS reported and 89,000 related deaths.(Lerner and Hombs 54) In the

In the 1980s, a mysterious disease began to take the lives of Americans. With the cause unknown, a fear grew among Americans. An unusually high rate of people was becoming sick with strange and rare diseases. When experimental treatments failed to work, people died. This mysterious disease is what we now know as HIV–Human Immunodeficiency Virus. In the past thirty-five years, the HIV has taken many turns in history. Although we do not hear about HIV and AIDS now, it is still a prevalent issue in the United States and in the world.

Various studies show evidence that link the relationship between social determinants of health and the risk for HIV. Interrelated social determinants of health can create a context of vulnerability and risk for HIV. It is very important to be able to recognize the interrelation components of HIV risk in order determine the HIV prevention response that is the most effective. For instance, research shows that HIV rates are significantly higher in Black men who have sex with men (MSM) than for MSM of other races. These rates, which are very disproportionate, are not attributable to a higher frequency of sexual risk behaviors. To appropriately address risk for MSM of different races, it is imperative to understand the process of disease transmission among these populations, in other words, the social determinants of health that are involved, such as access to healthcare (CHLA, 2012).

In 2010 African Americans made up 46% of Americans infected with HIV/AIDS, and they only make up 10% of the American population. Out of the 46% of blacks infected with the disease 88% are females and 19% are males. The question at hand is, what’s causing so many African American woman to be infected in America?

The more frequent occurrence of STDs in the younger generations are also based upon the multiple barriers in retrieving the benefits in STD prevention services which includes the lack of health insurance or inability to pay, no transportation, embarrassment of the services in the facilities, and worries of discretion. (STDs) According to the US Department of Health and Human Service, twenty five percent of sexually active adolescents have already obtained an STD. (Parillo) The severity of the issue is approached with the control strategies and educational strategies. In which these educational strategies are more effective when it involves a big health educational program that is provided to our minors. The young populations that are particularly affected by STDs are the young women with a low income for it is easier for a female to receive an STD compared to men. And with those women having a low income, they are not able to access the services that are being provided to them. Today, four in ten sexually active adolescent girls have obtained an STD that can cause infertility and death; also two thirds of adolescent boys have HIV diagnoses.

A study on HIV infections found that accessible sexually transmitted disease (STD) screening, community-directed interventions, sex education and services were the most beneficial (Kessler, Myers, Nucifora, Mensah, Kowalski, Sweeney, Braithwaite, 2013). However these services are not used prominently due to inconvenience, cultural reasons, and distrust towards the programs (Ma, Raymond, Wilson, McFarland, Lu, Ding, Xiao, 2012). These services need to become more community friendly, accessible and safe in order to engage the public (Ma et al., 2012). Governments cannot enforce the usage of these services but early HIV education in schools can be mandated to help eliminate stigmas and encourage usage of these services (Felten, Kok, & Kocken, 2016). Prevention measures work because they target HIV’s modifiable risk factors through education, circumcision, condoms, and a variety of other approaches (Kessler et al., 2013). Adequate prevention measures are needed to prevent negligence and

After the inequality between black and white populations in terms of contracting bacterial STDs became widespread knowledge researchers sought out to find a correlation between the income and STD contraction rates. It was previously thought that low income would automatically put someone in a category for higher risk since lower income was associated limited access to healthcare, and higher numbers of sex workers. If their research was successful the cultural theory of racial group difference as the main defining factor for STD risk would have been put under serious questions. However, after an extensive study of more than 10,791 respondents researchers came to the conclusion that income is only in the slightest a determining

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region of the world that is most affected by HIV/AIDS. The United Nations reports that an estimated 25.4 million people are living with HIV and that approximately 3.1 million new infections occurred in 2004. To put these figures in context, more than 60 percent of the people living with the infection reside in Africa. Even these staggering figures do not quite capture the true extent and impact that this disease causes on the continent. In 1998, about 200,000 Africans died as a result of various wars taking place on the continent. In that same year, more than 2 million succumbed to HIV/AIDS (Botchwey, 2000).