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Hiv / Aids : A Health Concern And Despite The Knowledge Of The Disease

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HIV/AIDS is a health concern and despite the knowledge of the disease, the infections are increasing especially amongst Blacks. This topic is particularly of interest to me because I feel that there is a greater need to apply sociology to explain why the rate of infections is increasing amongst certain demographics principally in the blacks/African American in the United States and not the people of whiteness. Blacks/ African Americans are not to blame for the HIV/AIDS, the social environment in which they live affects the individuals and in turn the way they think, act and behave. Corresponding to Lisa McIntyre (The Practical Skeptic, 2011), the sociological concept of social imagination “disregards biases against individuals and appeals to sources outside the individual” or social forces to explain behavior (p.31) furthermore, the concept of social imagination allows one to tackle the problems from the grassroots and promises significant change in the results. Definition and Statistics Conferring to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus which leads to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), (CDC, 2014). HIV affects the immune system that is the CD4 cells causing the weakening of the immune system (CDC, 2014). Weakening of the immune system leaves the body defenseless from new infections. At this stage, one is then declared to have Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

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