Ryan White Care Act

HIV has affected people all across the world. HIV comes with physical and mental symptoms. The body symptoms include skin flaking off, being dry, skin peeling off (Saliba 23) , fingernails falling off (32), and weight loss (14). Mentally it is hard to sleep, people become weak, and are tired all the time (23). People all across the world are infected with this disease, and the problem with this is the fact that most do not even know they have it. The most people who are infected each year are African Americans, gays, or bisexuals. 10,315 African Americans were infected in 2015. The U.S.A. has estimated about 1.1 million are infected with the disease. Equally to about 12,333 deaths happened in 2014 from AIDS related diseases, and 6,721 deaths from AIDS directly. Although there are a large amount of people getting infected, on the other hand eighteen percent of the population with HIV is declining since 2008-2014 (“U.S. Statistics”). In the world about 33.2 million people worldwide have HIV, with 22.5 million people in sub Saharan Africa are living with this condition, one out of nine people who live in South America have HIV or AIDS (Saliba 8).

According to estimates and numbers provided by the CDC, about one and a half million people 13 years of age and younger is HIV positive. Demographics also show that almost 20% of people who are infected do not know they have the virus. The CDC estimates that now every year, there are about 50,000 new cases diagnosed (2013). At risk groups include gay men, bisexual people, and African Americans (CDC, 2013). Young African American males are at greatest risk for contracting HIV among various ethnicities and races (CDC, 2013).

To be honest HIV/Aids is not a virus/disease that aim towards blacks although a large percentage of the African American population is carriers of the virus. From the history of the HIV/AIDS virus, it is known that the virus variation among humans started with homosexual Caucasian males. Many individuals have forgotten this fact and instead they carry around the idea that HIV is a black homosexual virus base on present statistics like this one from the CDC. “Among all MSM, black/African American MSM accounted for

African American young men are infected with HIV at an alarmingly high rate in comparison to other races. The negative stigmas that is attached to having HIV in the black community, especially for men can be extremely detrimental and harmful to their overall health. One stigma that was attached to having HIV was death, death was at one time believed to be imminent, and now HIV is about restructuring their lives to face the future (Buseh, Kelber, Stevens & Park, 2008, p.409), yet they still battle other stigmas surrounded around HIV.

This history of HIV/AIDS as a blurry timeline before the 1980’s since that was around the time reports came in which eventually become an HIV report. The origin of HIV can be traced back to the early part of the century. Some believe that in the 1920’s chimpanzees from the Congo came into contact with humans (Avert, 2016). Though reports were not identified as HIV until the 1980’s, the belief that HIV was already scattered throughout four other continents may have been incident (Avert, 2016). Even though for the past 30 years the world has been diligently working to find a cure and pushing prevention, we are still struggling each year with increasing diagnosis. The beginning of HIV did end with lots of death, but now with our improved antiviral medication there is hope for many.

​African-Americans are the ethnic group most affected by HIV/AIDS. Ironically african-americans represent 14% of the population of the United States , but represent 44% across the gender line. African-american men represent 70% of HIV infections among the ethnic group, however african-american women are also highly at risk of HIV infection. Indeed they have a rate of infection that is 15 times greater than the rate for caucasion women (HIV among African-Americans, 2012). Most African-american women (85%) are infected with HIV through heterosexual sex, often with partners, who claim to be

The death rate from HIV/AIDS for African Americans is more than seven times higher for black AA than it is for Whites.

HIV/AIDS is a disease with social, psychological and physiological consequences for those impacted by the illness. The impact of HIV and AIDS among African American women has been devastating. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC, 2010) reports that black women represent 29% of the estimated new HIV infections among all adult and adolescent African Americans and HIV/AIDS is the third leading cause of death for black women ages 25?44. Several

HIV/AIDS Disparity among African Americans Health disparities are the differences in accessing and receiving quality of health care provided to different populations (book). The multiple causes of disparities may include gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, stigma or socioeconomic status. One of the common disparities in the US is among African American women who are infected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and its viral successor, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). There is no clear answer as to why disparity is an ongoing problem within the population but factors that contribute to this epidemic include race itself, poverty or low income and lack of access to care

The African American women age 18-24 who contract HIV have a high mortality rate than other racial groups. African American women are known to be less likely to date outside their race. Although

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)

However, there is growing concern about the disproportionate increase of HIV among adolescent African American males ages 13-19. These adolescent males count for 37 percent of the cases, which double their representation in their general population. Although, Poverty is a major

Another thing that’s causing more African American woman to have a higher percentage infected than any other race is because, many don’t date or have sexual partners outside of the African American race. There are more men in the African American race than any other race infected with HIV/AIDS. So therefore infecting the African American woman.

When HIV/AIDS was first known in the United States, people who were affected were dying at a rapid rate as the disease was new to the medical community. There was no treatment and because of that the disease became highly publicized. At the time there were hatred for those who were considered gay. Those who came out and spoke openly about their HIV and AIDS were often being victimized. With the fear and homophobia from society, gay men and women took to the street to demand a government response to AIDS and were influenced to create a national movement.

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,