Malawi 's High Rate Of Hiv / Aids Essay

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).

When a fatal disease becomes known to a society but lacks explanation our instinct as humans is to jump to conclusions, whether they are logical or not. We bargain with our faith, we search for any evidence to support our conjectures, we deny the truth of the disease, and we place blame on each other. All of these desperate acts of justification are driven by fear—fear of the unknown. The combination of fear and ignorance that pushes people to make conclusions is readily notable in the AIDS epidemic of Haiti. Haitians reacted to AIDS in a similar manner as other cultures, but there are also differences that are specific to their community. Like many cultures, Haitians reasoned the occurrence of AIDS with explanations beyond the scope of medicine, with diseases that were known to them, or were instead in complete denial. The uniqueness of the occurrence of AIDS in Haiti was that there was no direct cause that could be addressed. Thus, while under significant scrutiny as the origin of AIDS, Haitians reacted to the epidemic by blaming the existence of AIDS on poor socioeconomic status, on sorcery, and on other people or countries.

Did you know “AIDS is the leading cause of death in Africa” (Quinn, online). Twenty percent of Africa’s population has died from AIDS. Poverty is a big problem in Africa. Men have been forced to become migrant workers in urban areas. And antiretroviral treatment at this time is not available to African people. AIDS is a big problem in Africa today that is now requiring help from the world.

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.

Africa has a history of facing many challenges, including starvation, poverty, Ebola and AIDS. AIDS, however, has become Africa’s biggest hurdle. Botswana, located in Southern Africa, has been hit the hardest by the AIDS virus with over 23% of its population contracting AIDS. In order to help fix the AIDS epidemic in Botswana, multiple things need to be reviewed, such as understanding how AIDS spread throughout Botswana, where the region currently stands on the AIDS virus, and the three solutions on how to prevent the rise in the spreading of the virus within the area. According to the website Avert, studies have shown that the most effective ways to help stop the spread of AIDS includes testing centers, intervention centers, and the distribution of more protective measures.

Much like the emergence of HIV in the United States, the first HIV cases in South Africa were found in the homosexual male population. In 1983, two homosexual, South African men passed away from opportunistic infections associated with autoimmune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). In the months following, many other homosexual men became infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which caused the people of South Africa to consider AIDS a disease that solely infected homosexuals. Sadly, this misperception created stigma around becoming infected with HIV.

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 purpose of this paper is to create a health profile of the country of Malawi identifying the state of the overall health of the country based on specific health issues. Malawi has a population of 15,263,000. The average lifespan for males is 44 years and the average lifespan for females is 51 years. The leading causes of death in Malawi are HIV/AIDS, Lower Respiratory Infections, Malaria, Diarrheal Disease, and Perinatal Conditions. Infant mortality has a rate of 58 deaths for every 1,000 live births (Bowie, 2006).

Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV was first clinically observed in the United States in June 1981 in healthy young gay men, originating in Los Angeles, California. On June 5th 1981, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), quite quietly, published an article describing five cases of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) in gay men in this region with two of the five already dead. This Morbidity and Morality Weekly Report (MMWR) issued by the CDC is the first reporting of the AIDS outbreak that was soon to follow. Once the report was issued, the CDC received 26b reports of similar cases of this pneumonia along with Kaposi’s Sarcoma (KS), a rare skin cancer, among the same demographic in New York and California. Because the disease was limited to the gay male population, and little was known about it besides the fact that it targeted the immune system, it was called GRID among the media standing for Gay- Related Immune Deficiency. By years end, 270 cases of severe immune deficiency in gay males were reported with 121 already reported dead. In 1982, the term AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome was first used by the CDC along with reporting a case definition to medical professionals and the public.a In the few years to follow, the CDC determined the other routes of HIV infection and transmission following discovery in infants and women and the World Heath Organization (WHO) got involved in the epidemic. By 1985, at least one case of HIV virus had been

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).

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.

Malawi is a landlocked, densely populated country located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Malawi borders Zambia to the northwest, Mozambique surrounds it on the east, south, and west, and Tanzania borders to the north. According to the Index of Economic Freedom 2007, which ranks countries based upon ten different freedoms, Malawi is ranked number 106 out of 157. Although Malawi is not the worst off country, there are many reasons to explain why Malawi's economy is unstable and is ranked as one of the world's least developed countries. The country has been faced with terrible government corruption, a low Human Development Index due to a low life expectancy rate, literacy and enrollment rate, a low GDP per capita, limitations of its geographic

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

Tanzania's poverty, lack of crucial health care, and other vital infrastructure are evident in many ways. Tanzania has not only been struggling with malaria outbreaks, but also an HIV/AIDS epidemic. USAID reports the HIV infection rate to be 6% out of the 41.5 million people living in the country.1 As a result of these and other factors, life expectancy in the country is 51 and continuing to decrease.1 Infant mortality is very high as well. According to the 2009 report released by Amnesty International, 123 male children out of 1000 die before the age of five, as do 110 out of every 1000 female children.

As one of the poorest countries in the world, Malawi is one of the most population dense countries in Sub – Saharan Africa. It has been classified as one of the world’s least developed countries. Malawi is a largely agricultural country with approximately 90% of the population living within rural areas. Agriculture accounts for approximately 35% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Its GDP, as of 2013, was 3.7 billion USD. Malawi has a population of over 16 million residents, with more than half of its population falling below the poverty line.