Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Also Known As Hiv, Continuous

There are an immense amount of problems in Africa caused by the AIDS disease. Healthcare providers are available and located all over Africa. Even though they are available, they have only “enough medicine for long-term survival available for 30,000 Africans” (Copson, 3).

In The Invisible Cure, Helen Epstein talks about why HIV/AIDS rate is so high in Africa compared to the rest of the world. Through the book, she gives us an account of the disease and the struggles that many health experts and ordinary Africans went through to understand this disease, and how different African countries approached the same problem differently. Through this paper, I will first address the different ways Uganda and Southern African countries, South Africa and Botswana in particular, dealt with this epidemic, and then explain how we can use what we have learned from these African countries to control outbreaks of communicable disease elsewhere around the world.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS is a pandemic problem affecting global health. At the end of 2015, 36.7 million people were living with HIV/AIDS globally. The rate of incidence is more prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa with almost 1 in every 24 adults living with HIV/AIDS. In the united states, HIV/AIDS is a diversified health problem affecting all sexes, ages and races and involving the transmission of multiple risk behavior. However, with the introduction of various prevention programs and antiretroviral drugs, the incidence of HIV/AIDS has reduced.

HIV is a sexually transmitted disease that attacks the body’s immune system by diminishing CD4 cells that help prevent and fight illnesses. HIV is a virus, more specifically a retrovirus that transcribes its RNA into the host cell’s DNA, and is spread by a transfer in bodily fluids namely drug injection and condomless sex. As the disease progresses into acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), the virus continues eliminating CD4 cells until the immune system becomes virtually ineffective [5]. Scientists first identified HIV in 1985 in response to the AIDS crisis plaguing the United States [6]. With no cure yet available, those affected with HIV must rely on antiretroviral drug therapy to decrease their chances of developing AIDS [7].

In the sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of the population suffers from HIV leading to AIDS. The culprits responsible for this epidemic include the lack of knowledge about the disease, disuse of condoms due to religious practices and the overall poor hygiene. If left untreated, the rampant surge of AIDS can terrribly impact the cost of their healthcare, the African economy and the welfare of the people. This implications justify immediately finding remedies to what ails the sub-Saharan population.

In 2014, 1.2 million people died from HIV and its related causes. In the same year, about 36.9 million people were living with HIV. Among these, 2 million were newly infected in 2014. The rate of infection has reduced by 35% between the years of 2000 and 2015. Between the same years, mortality due to HIV fell by 24%. The area with the most HIV/AIDS victims is Sub-Saharan Africa. In this region, 25.8 million people were living with HIV in 2014. The region also has 70% of the newly infected victims in the world. It is very unfortunate that more than 50% of people with HIV know that they have it. HIV testing efforts have improved with 150 million in 129 low and middle income counties getting tested. It was reported in 2015 that 15.8 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy (World Health Organization,

In the past four decades, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been discovered, developed into an international epidemic, and

Even though there is a rapid advancement in medical inventions, still the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the most challenging virus that will drag the human lives to the deadly disease acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It spreads its wings all over. HIV cannot be cured, but it can be prevented. It has become the greatest life threatening disease and affects unbelievably high percent of human beings. Nowadays, besides other deadly diseases, HIV/AIDS becomes more complex and crucial health issue that challenges several medical inventions. Several contributors cause this deadly virus and disease such as promiscuity, homosexuality, female circumcision, sugar daddies, sexual crime, rape, prostitution, cultural

Although ninety-five percent of people living with HIV/AIDS are in developing countries, the impact of this epidemic is global. In South Africa, where one in four adults are living with the disease, HIV/AIDS means almost certain death for those infected. In developed countries however, the introduction of antiretroviral drugs has meant HIV/AIDS is treated as a chronic condition rather than a killer disease. In developing countries like South Africa, the drugs that allow people to live with the disease elsewhere in the world, are simply too expensive for individuals and governments to afford at market price.

The answers to the questions above are much easier said than done. The majority of the people with HIV/AIDS live in sub-Saharan Africa (Figure 1) (13). As of 2013, 39 million people have died since this disease was brought to light in the early 1980s (13). Even though this disease has been at the forefront of research for decades, scientific advances in the field have been slow to come about. There is no cure for the disease; however new antiretroviral treatments have allowed the virus replication to be controlled at a more manageable level (8). There have been concentrated global efforts to spread these drugs through the crisis areas of the disease, but efforts have not always been successful.

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).

ART is the use of HIV medicines to fight HIV infection and it involves taking a combination of HIV medicines every day. These HIV medicines can control the virus so that a patient can live a longer, healthier life and reduce the risk of transmitting HIV to others. Before the introduction of ART in the mid-1990s, people with HIV could progress to AIDS in just a few years. Today, a person who is diagnosed with HIV and treated before the disease is far advanced can have a nearly normal life expectancy. Although no safe and effective cure for HIV currently exists.

Almost 36.9 million people are currently living with HIV infection and almost 10 million people being died from the infection or as a result related causes or opportunistic infections. At present people acquired the infection reported from all regions in the world. The majority of old and new cases are reported from sub-Saharan Africa which accounts for almost 70%. Most of the HIV infection affects people at their predictive life, and around 40% of the infection occurs in young youth at age less than 25 ys. (Global Health policy, 2014).

HIV is a virus that is spread almost all over the world. Although in some places health care isn’t as developed and therefore it spreads more in those regions. Sub-Saharan Africa holds more than 70%, 25 million, of all HIV positive people in the world. Second highest is Eastern Europe together with Central Asia with 1.3 million. It is spread over most of the world, including Asia and the Pacific, the Caribbean, Central and South America, North Africa and the Middle East and Western and Central Europe (“The Regional Picture”).

HIV/ AIDS is the serious problem of the world today. HIV is commonly known as Human Immune Deficiency Virus and AIDS is Acquired Immune Deficiency Virus. HIV is the first stage and AIDS is the final stage of the same disease. HIV/AIDS is not itself a disease, but it decrease the power of immunity in the human body which will decrease the resistance capacity of the body to fight the disease. It is the fluid transmitted disease which is believed to be sexually transmitted disease too. Till the date, this disease does not have any permanent solution. There are cure and prevention but no permanent treatment for this disease. Even after knowing the worst effect its victim is increasing in the world’s society. HIV/AIDS has become the serious medical and social issue which can 't be cured fully but can be prevented by different medical treatment and social awareness done by the social organization. Moreover, it can be cured by motivation towards living life and changing the misbeliefs and thoughts of people regarding HIV/AIDS.