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Epidemiology Paper on Hiv

Decent Essays

Amanda Hough
Grand Canyon University: Family Centered Health Promotion
May 16, 2014

HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. It can lead to immunodeficiency syndrome or AIDS. It is caused by the HIV entering the uninfected body and stats to destroy CD4+cells which are there to help the body fight infection and disease (Webmd.com, 2014). Once you have HIV, you have it for life. More than 1.1 million people in United States alone are living with HIV and 1 out of 6 font even know it. About 50,000 people are infected with HIV each year (Cdc.gov, 2014). It is more commonly see in the gay community particularly young black males. In 2011 an estimated that 15,529 people had died. (Aids.gov, 2014)
HIV is spread by having unprotected sex …show more content…

Testing to see if you have been infected with HIV is easy. There is a rapid HIV test available where they use a blood sample to look for antibodies to HIV. This test takes about twenty minutes if positive follow up testing in necessary (Cdc.gov, 2014).
Treatment for HIV is just to control the disease. They use a combination of drug therapies known as cocktails. This way when the virus figures out how to get around one there is another drug to block it from duplicating itself.
The social determinants of health are the circumstances in which people are born, grow up, live, work, and age, as well as the systems put in place to deal with illness. Social determinants for HIV would be in the poor black community where people are unable to afford condoms, new needles and are uneducated in this disease. The epidemiologic triangle is a model that scientists have developed for studying health problems and how they spread. The epidemiologic triangle of this disease would be the host (the human), environment (which tends to be lower income black community’s) and agent (HIV).
Community health nurses find out information about the community’s involvement and knowledge. They use their clinical understanding and experience to bring information to the community’s about different health issues in that area. For example if HIV was increasing in their area they would collect the numbers and data and bring it to the attention of other health care agencies to bring

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