Hiv / Aids As A Pandemic For Global Health

HIV/AIDS has been responsible for one of the worst epidemics in history. In her book “The Invisible Cure” Helen Epstein details why Africa in particular was so devastated by the disease, which countries failed and which succeeded in the struggle to contain the virus, and why this happened. Epstein highlights a particular phenomenon, that first took place in Uganda, but which can be translated to many countries and situations, and which she calls “the invisible cure.”

Just as clearly, experience shows that the right approaches, applied quickly enough with courage and resolve, can and do result in lower HIV infection rates and less suffering for those affected by the epidemic. An ever-growing AIDS epidemic is not inevitable; yet, unless action against the epidemic is scaled up drastically, the damage already done will seem minor compared with what lies ahead. This may sound dramatic, but it is hard to play down the effects of a disease that stands to kill more than half of the young adults in the countries where it has its firmest hold—most of them before they finish the work of caring for their children or providing for their elderly parents. Already, 18.8 million people around the world have died of AIDS, 3.8 million of them children. Nearly twice that many—34.3 million—are now living with HIV, the virus [9].

A story was told of a young woman who went to Miami Beach, Florida for spring break. She went out to a club, had some drinks and met a guy. Unfortunately, she later had unprotected sex with this guy she just met. The next morning went she woke up in her hotel room on her night table was a note which read, “I gave you AIDs last night.” Can you imagine how heartbroken this young girl felt, is my life over, what do I do now? HIV/AIDs is a plague that is unleashed through sexual contact or the body fluids of an infected individual.

Globally, there is good news. In 2011 the World Health Organization (WHO) claimed that the HIV/AIDs epidemic was declining in their “Global HIV/AIDS Response” progress report (Progress Report 2011). Each continent and region, however, showed different changes in their rates of HIV/AIDS (Progress Report 2011). In North America, and specifically in the United States, the incidence of HIV has been constant for the past several years (Progress Report 2011). Despite the stability of this disease, the proportions of who is becoming infected are alarming (Progress Report 2011).

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).

One of the most known and feared viruses in the world today is HIV/AIDS. To fully

AIDS, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, have been a worldwide issue for years. There have been countless controversies about AIDS but not many know the real truth behind this disease. AIDS epidemic have crucially changed American medicine procedures and greatly induced economic and social changes in the United States of America.

With the prevalence and spread of communicable diseases on the rise, epidemiologists are working very diligently to find the agent, host, environment, and how it is spread with every new discovery. According to MedicinePlus (2016), “infectious diseases kill more people worldwide than any other single cause”. The human immunodeficiency virus, also known as HIV has been one of the largest epidemics in history. “HIV continues to be a major global health issue, having claimed more than 34 million lives so far. In 2014, 1.2 [980,000-1.6 million] million people died from HIV-related causes globally” (World Health Organization, 2015, n.p.). Having a good understanding of HIV

HIV/AIDS is becoming a huge complication around the world. More and more countries that are not commonly known to have an issue with AIDS/HIV are developing epidemics. It is common knowledge that South Africa struggles with an HIV/AIDS epidemic, but a lesser known country affected would be Russia. The epidemic spread in Russia because of drug users, prostitutes, and cultural shame. It spread in South Africa because of African men’s refusal to use condoms and polygamous relationships. There are many misconceptions concerning how each country has dealt with HIV/AIDS. Superficially, it may seem that Russia handled AIDS/HIV better politically than South Africa, mainly because of NGOs and other forces outside of the government, but it is clear through the prevention and treatment programs launched by each country that the South African government handled the situation much better because of the government’s open-mindedness and the detailed plan the country launched that was based on human rights, gender equality, and prevention.

Global health issues are diverse in different parts of the world in America it is obesity, in countries such as Indonesia there are health issues related to the quality of water, and finally in Africa aids is the health issues. HIV and AIDS has become on the biggest epidemics in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. There has been an estimated 24.7 million people were living with HIV (Shah, A. n.d). The 24.7 million people represent the seventy-one percent of the aids population in the world (Shah, A. n.d).

Although the first wave of HIV infections occurred in 1988 amongst injecting drug users, it was during 1989 – 1990 that prompted the “awakening of HIV/AIDS.” The National Advisory Committee on AIDS developed a surveillance of sentinel groups, which included sex workers, male patients with sexually transmitted infections, and blood donors. This surveillance revealed the HIV virus being transmitted rapidly through sex. From 1989-1990, the prevalence of direct sex workers infected with the virus tripled from 3.5% to 9.3%. One year later, this prevalence increased to 21.6%. During the same period, the proportion of male conscripts, aged 21, infected with HIV during testing for entry to the army rose six fold from 0.5% in 1989 to 3% in 1991. This increase was associated with the growing popularity of visiting sex establishments among young men.

By the 1990s, the epidemic of HIV and AIDS was sweeping across Africa and other underdeveloped countries. By this period, the virus has taken hundreds of thousands of lives of adults and also small children. By the year of 1994, approximately for a decade

At the end of 2011, the reported new cases of the virus had confirmed diagnoses and give a total figure of around 34 million globally. HIV virus has ascended over the years and is still on the rise causing concern for the welfare of society worldwide, although this is said to be stabilising due to the number of people accessing anti-retroviral treatment worldwide. AIDS (the final stage of HIV) has taken the lives of over 30 million people globally from the outbreak of the first epidemic in the early 1980’s. (Avert.org, 2014 worldwide HIV and AIDS statistics).

The pandemic known as AIDS was first found in a human blood sample around the year 1959 and was later introduced to the United States in the late 1970s to early 1980s. “From 1979–1981 rare types of pneumonia, cancer, and other illnesses were being reported by doctors in Los Angeles and New York among a number of male patients who had sex with other men (“Where did HIV come from?”).” Due to these occurrences, doctors did their research and were able to trace the cause of this fatal disease called Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS is a disease that developed from the virus, HIV, which is a virus that attacks the immune system. AIDS can commonly be called the third and final stage of HIV, because the virus has entered its most severe stage in its life span and the cell count of a person’s immune system has dropped below 200. “When the number of your CD4 cells falls below 200 cells per cubic millimeter of blood (200 cells/mm3), you are considered to have progressed to AIDS. (In someone with a healthy immune system, CD4 counts are between 500 and 1,600 cells/mm3.)(“What Are The Stages of the HIV Infection?”).” The disease has shown to increasingly weaken our immune system by killing off T-cells that act as defenders to prevent illnesses and diseases. Although, AIDS has been reported in many cases all over the world, the actual spreading of AIDS is impossible. People who have AIDS are not infected with the disease directly, instead they are infected with HIV which later

AIDS is a known issue when it comes to global health, however, the region it has the most impact on is Africa. The human immunodeficiency virus, more commonly known as HIV, is a retrovirus. A retrovirus is basically a virus or group of viruses that insert into a host cell in order to replicate. HIV affects cells of the immune system, and destroys or impairs their function. As HIV progresses, the immune system weakens, which causes the person infected to become more susceptible to other illnesses. HIV at its most advanced stage is called acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, otherwise known as AIDS. It can take 10-15 years for an HIV-infected person to develop AIDS. HIV can be transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse, transfusion of contaminated blood, sharing of contaminated needles, and between a mother and her infant during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. HIV infection is usually diagnosed through blood tests detecting whether or not there are HIV antibodies. There is no cure for HIV infection. However, effective antiretroviral drugs can control the virus to an extent, so people living with HIV can live healthier and more productive lives (World Health Organization). Eastern and Southern Africa only accounts for five percent of the world’s population, however it is home to half the world’s population that is living with HIV. The region has been and continues to be the center of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and accounts for 48% of the world’s new HIV infections