Essay On AIDS

Human Immunodeficiency Virus is HIV that develops into AIDS, which is Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. This virus starts to break down white blood cells, as a result the immune system starts to deteriorate and our greatest shield cannot fight any longer (Mayo Clinic, 2016). The CDC (2015) states, that over 1.2 million people live with HIV in the United States and most who are infected are oblivious of their disease. Healthy people 2020 has declared HIV a public health crisis in the United States, and continues to sweep the nation with more than 500,000 new cases each year (HealthyPeople2020,2016).

HIV/Aids pandemic is high in South Africa as compared to any other country in the world. Recent statistic show that 12% of South Africa’s population lives with the virus and including young children the percentage rises to 18% of the total population. Other neighboring countries such as Botswana also have high prevalence rates and this means that almost all southern African countries rank top among the most infected nations not only in Africa but the world around. In the past few years the number of south Africans being diagnosed of HIV has been rising and even though the infections among adolescents particularly male have been dropping the damage this infection is causing remains substantial both socially and economically. Based on demographic grouping the most infected are females below the age of 40. And of the females infected about 80% are aged between 20-24 years. Infection among males stands below 40% with those aged above 30 years being the most infected. The fact that aids is high in South Africa more than any other country in Africa makes it necessary to understand the reasons behind it. Steinberg (2008) in his book “Sizwe 's test: a young man 's journey through Africa 's AIDS epidemic” fails to understand why many people still die in south Africa despite the emergence of antiretroviral drugs. He however realizes that “stigma” remains the greatest challenge in as far as HIV/AIDS is

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)

Once the New York Time published Rare Cancer seen in 41 Homosexuals, it stated that, “Doctors in New York and California have diagnosed among homosexual men 41 cases of a rare and often rapidly fatal form of cancer.” (Atlman) This started the stigma that this cancer was only affecting homosexuals and the term “gay cancer” was created. By the end of 1981 there were 270 gay men with severe immune deficiency and about 44% of those men had passed away the same year. Additionally, researchers started calling this illness GRID which stood for Gay-Related Immune Deficiency. Consequently, A Timeline of HIV/AIDS on the government website on AIDS stated, “This terminology influences both the medical profession and the public to perceive the epidemic as limited to gay men, with serious long-term consequences for women, heterosexual men, hemophiliacs, people who inject drugs, and children. (“A Timeline of HIV/AIDS”2017) Because it was perceived as something that only affected the LGBTQ+ community causes that arouse of other people created a fear among

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.

LGBT history has changed the way society works in the United States and has had an impact around the world. The homosexual community came as an impact to the world during the early 1900’s. They were considered different; odd, ill, and weak, but little did we know the effects it would have in today’s society and politics. The war, queer, and AIDs movements seem to relatively impact members of the gay and lesbian community the most. In an series of interviews in “Word is Out” conducted by Nancy Adair and Casey Adair, the reader is introduced into the lives of Pam, Rusty, and Pat; lesbian women living within their true identity during the mid-1900’s. Their stories consist of broken family relationships, marriage failure, and gender roles. To help one understand the dynamics of their relationships and lives, John D’Emilo talks about the effects of war and how it structures and damages the gay community and their opportunity for equality. Elizabeth Davis speaks about the Lesbian experience in public spaces that exposes many to find their character by associating with those that fit best to their community in “Lesbian Bar Culture in the 1930’s and 1940’s”. The LGBT community for centuries has won the spotlight in the news and many articles published in well know newspapers, but what many never get to hear or see are the struggle that many homosexuals face. Both gays and lesbians in the United States have received backlash because of their race, gender, and social class. The

In the book Stonewall: Breaking Out In the Fights For Gay Rights, author Ann Bausum starts the book off by going into a complete and brutal overview on how gay people were treated in a time before the Stonewall Riots. She then goes on to cover how exactly the first riot and the ones coming directly after happened, using sources from both sides of the conflicts, including police officers and people who had been run from the Stonewall inn. She continues by going into the aftereffects of the riots and into the AIDS crisis that hit the community nearly two decades after. The book is ended on a hopeful note, saying that the future can only look up from here for the queer community.

The Bubonic Plague or the Black Death came into Europe when twelve trade ships came into an Italian port, after a long trip through the black sea. When it came into port, the Italian people were shocked to find that many of the ships sailors were dead, and the remaining living were overcome with black oozing boils. To stop the spread of this plague, the Italian people sent the ship back out into the ocean, but alas it was too late. Over the next five years, this plague would become extremely contagious and would kill about a fifth of Europe’s population. Although this was the first time they had seen this plague come into their

After reading the five given articles carefully there are critical points that I would like to articulate in my reaction paper. These articles provoked me to think that we are blessed to have health professional that were able to discover HIV/AIDS and the causes of Kaposi 's Sarcoma and Pneumocystis pneumonia of homosexual men in July 1981, following the report of these cases of PCP and cases of other rare life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers in America we began to recognize the importance of being aware of HIV/AIDS (Altman). Maybe not need

Patients that are diagnosed with HIV and eventually AIDS often become stigmatized and experience discrimination in Latin America. These roots of stigma and discrimination are founded in societal inequalities embedded with the complex relationship between socioeconomic status, political policies, and cultural values. A stigma can be described as the identification a social group makes about an individual based on the physical deformities, character faults, and family lineages (race, nation, or religion) that are not part of the norms of society (Goffman 2009:4-7). This, in turn, causes the discrimination the individual faces, but more importantly alters their interpretation of themselves within society.

HIV and AIDS have affected millions of people throughout the world. Since 1981, there have been 25 million deaths due to AIDS involving men, women, and children. Presently there are 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS around the world and two million die each year from AIDS related illnesses. The Center for Disease Control estimates that one-third of the one million Americans living with HIV are not aware that they have it. The earliest known case of HIV was in 1959. It was discovered in a blood sample from a man in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Looking further into the genetics of this blood sample researchers suggested that it had originated from a virus going back to the late 1940’s or early 1950’s. In 1999,

The case of Doctor David Acer and his HIV infected patients reads as a question of ethical and legal dilemmas as well as a murder mystery. According to authorities, Dr. Acer either knowingly or unknowingly infected five of his patients with the strain of the AIDS virus he himself was infected with (Altman, 1993). Whether or not Dr. Acer was guilty of intentionally infecting his patients is not able to be answered beyond any reasonable doubt, however the ethical questions it presents merit discussion.

1932 in Tuskegee, Alabama the Public Health Service treated African American men with the sexually transmitted virus syphilis. From a CDC article it says “Researcher told the men they were being treated for bad blood,” a local term used to describe several ailments, including syphilis, anemia and fatigue. “The project went on longer than planned expected it lasted for 40 years it was only planned for 6 months. The men did not have proper treatment so that they could be cured. People say that they did they gave the men syphilis to kill off the African American male race.

HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. A member of a group of viruses called retroviruses, HIV infects human cells and uses the energy and nutrients provided by those cells to grow and reproduce. AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is a disease in which the body's immune system breaks down and is unable to fight off certain infections, known as "opportunistic infections," and other illnesses that take advantage of a weakened immune system. When a person is infected with HIV, the virus enters the body and lives and multiplies primarily in the white blood cells. These are the immune cells that normally protect us from disease.

HIV, or the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is a virus which damages and kills cells of the immune system. It attacks the T-cells, key cells of the immune system, and uses them to make copies of itself. After being infected with the virus it progressively interferes and eventually destroys the immune system's ability to fight the anti-genes. HIV may develop into the syndrome AIDS, the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. HIV is an STD - a sexually transmitted disease - and therefore most commonly it is spread through sexual contact, and the virus mainly enters the body through the penis, mouth, lining of the vagina or vulva during sexual activity. HIV can also be spread through sharing syringes or needles with someone who is infected with the