Should The Hiv / Aids Epidemic?

When it came to differing views between western beliefs and the native point of view, one of the bigger problems was the conflict about contraception and stopping the spread of HIV and AIDS. Southern Africa, were the Dobe Ju’/hoansi subside, has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the world. “[T] he world U/N. figures for June 2000 show a seropositive rate among adults of 19.54 percent in Namibia, 19.94 percent in South Africa, and a staggering 35.8 percent in Botswana (Lee 2003: 190).” Because of the epidemic the life expectancy in the area has also drastically dropped. Western medical professionals have made clear to most communities that condoms are the most effective protection from HIV/AIDs. Because of this many western clinics and organizations in Africa distribute condoms to the local people. Regardless of the

HIV is communicable disease that is caused by virus. This particular virus attacks the immune system which means people who suffer from HIV find it more difficult to fight of infection than the average person who does not suffer from HIV. This disease can be transmitted by direct contact, generally it is transferred by sexual contact between partners in fact 95% of those who suffer from HIV are contracted it this way. It can also be contracted by using dirty needles or any other contaminated tool. It can also be contracted by sharing sexual toys. HIV is commonly found in a person’s bodily fluids this means it is spread through, Sperm, vaginal and even anal fluids, breast milk and blood are also common.

​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

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

Of the 35 million people living with HIV in the world, 19 million do not know their HIV-positive status. Adolescent girls and young women account for one in four new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa. Women are much more vulnerable to HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis B and C than the general public. Which is supported by this excerpt from a recent AIDSTAR-One regional report “Women and girls often face discrimination in terms of access to education, employment and healthcare. In this region, men often dominate sexual relationships. As a result, women cannot always practice safer sex even when they know the risks involved. Gender-based violence has been identified as a key driver of HIV transmission in the region.” (Ellsberg, Betron 2010) Many children are affected by the disease in a number of ways: they live with sick parents and relatives in households drained of resources due to the epidemic, and those who have lost parents are less likely to go to school or continue their education. Studies in the regions of Southern Africa and South-East Asia have found HIV/AIDS to negatively impact both the demand for and supply of education. Orphaned children are either pulled out of school or not enrolled at all due to the financial constraints of

This subjugation of women to men leads to statistics such as women are infected with HIV earlier than men. Kiruthu et al provide evidence, as do Petros et al, for why it seems that way. That women are consistently favoured below men, that they are subsequently unable to secure for themselves a career as illustrious as that of a man, and that the responsibilities of the household have fallen to them make poverty real. Petros et al show that women acknowledge the interplay between poverty and HIV/AIDS, with particular regard to sex work. If men were to be infected, say the authors, they need only blame the women for their promiscuity. As mentioned in Kiruthu et al, this extremely unequal relationship perhaps didn't exist – and certainly didn’t in the Kikuyu tribes of Kenya – before the colonial

HIV can affect any body once they are exposing to unprotected sex and unsafe use of needles while taking drugs. Yet, many are still unaware of how HIV is contracted. Human immunodeficiency virus can be found in body fluid of blood, vaginal fluid, semen, sex toys and breast milk. However, many women are at risk because of social, economic and political factors such as their immigration status, poverty, and homelessness.

The infection rates of HIV in women ages 15-24 is approximately twice as high as men in the same age group. Access to sexual and reproductive health services in Africa is restricted by the gender inequality, stigma and discrimination in the face of high HIV/AIDS prevalence. The study is limited to 2 cities, Uyo and Calabar; major centers of HIV/AIDS response. Interviews reveal that large numbers of people, especially from rural regions, are improperly informed and unaware of the nature of HIV/AIDS. An outreach program displayed HIV prevention messages, but the signs were in English. Access to ART can be difficult. Poorer women cannot afford repeat visits to clinics. Societal issues are present; HIV/AIDS stigma is widespread and families will outcast individuals, denying them of any support. The study also showed a declining confidence in ART as a form of treatment. Respondents reported cases of those on HIV/AIDS treatment who developed further infections. The article displays the need for better education and programs to help people access treatment for

Stephanie Nolen was already known for her work as the Globe and Mail’s Africa correspondent, ranging from the effects of war on women and children, to Stephen Lewis’ fight to end AIDS in Africa, when she published 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa in 2007. 28 is Nolen’s attempt to reflect the 28 million Africans who had HIV in 2007. Nolen gathered the testimonies of 28 individuals including orphans, miners, grandmothers, soldiers, the clergy, and Nelson Mandela. In this book, Nolen seamlessly integrates personal stories of the victims with shocking statistics and engrossing quotes, effortlessly bring a ‘human face’ to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This is a great piece of work demanding both empathy and immediate action.

In the 1980s and 90s, women who face the HIV epidemic often had to go at it alone. As the media portrayed the disease a one for gay, white males, women were often left without knowledge of the disease and without knowledge of how to keep themselves safe. Along with that, women also had to deal with the discrimination of doctors who didn’t want to treat those with HIV or didn’t want to treat those who didn’t want to accept their form of treatment. For example, Isle Groth, in her tale Bright Candles in the Dark, was swept aside after she told her doctor at the hospital that she didn’t want to partake in the AZT. Additionally, women also had to deal with being married and believing that they are not at risk. They would never think to worry if

Women of color have a higher chance of contracting HIV than any other women in society. This is something that could be avoided if sexual ignorance in a heteronormative relationship was dispelled. As this ignorance is broken down, women of color can achieve more power in the relationship, sexual freedom, and sexual satisfaction.

Based on documented records, the transfer of vaginal fluids and menstrual blood may possibly contain the virus and exposure in both the mouth and the vagina could possibly result to an HIV infection. Case reports show that female-to-female transmission are linked to drug injection or heterosexual sex.

HIV is the virus that causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, commonly known as AIDS. HIV/AIDS has become one of the most destructive global pandemics in history. In 1990, the World Health Organization estimated that over one million people were living with AIDS, and in less than ten years, HIV had exploded worldwide (Perlin & Cohen). Johanna Tayloe Crane, a medical anthropologist, dedicated her career to studying the way political and economic inequalities influence how HIV/AIDS is researched and treated for in Africa. Crane complied over ten years of ethnographic research to study a HIV research partnership between a US university and Ugandan universities and clinics. Her book, Scrambling for Africa: AIDS, Expertise, and the Rise of American Global Health Science, unpacks both the American and Ugandan researcher’s and clinicians’ perspectives about the research partnership and critiques the U.S. response to the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Her findings reveal the paradox of health institutions and their global health research partnerships benefit from the inequalities they are trying to readdress. These global, economic, and scientific inequalities have allowed Global Health Science research partnerships to establish their own authority over Africa’s HIV/AIDS epidemic.

When AIDS made its debut in the early 80s, societies branded it as a disease that infected homosexuals and/or IV drug abusers. People often confused HIV with AIDS. HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is the virus that infects a person, and if left untreated leads to the fatal disease AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome). However, over the last 35 years, we have learned that, in reality, AIDS does not discriminate against sexual orientation, drug addictions, race, age or any other factor; however, it victimizes one gender more often than the other. Researchers prove that, on a global scale, women are more susceptible to contracting HIV/AIDS than are men. Both statistically and logically, women experience higher incidences of HIV exposure than men for multiple reasons. Women engage in sex work more often than men, they also experience a higher rate of sexual violence, and simply by being the inferior partner in a domestically abusive relationship. Understanding how gender increases the HIV risk of women is crucial to winning the fight against HIV/AIDS. Women are the center of societies everywhere; therefore, it is urgent that nations stand together to educate and rid women, worldwide, of this infectious life-threatening disease.

The question of ‘agency’ becomes apparent when discussing HIV, especially in relation to gender dynamics. Jennifer Hirsch’s ethnographic research, The Secret (2014), reveals how marriage and extra marital sex intersect with modes of power and structural violence in turn putting couples (mostly women) at risk for HIV infection. This phenomenon is linked to historical, economic, social and cultural variants of inequality that suppress women to a certain set of practices that makes them reside outside the peripheries of society, on the basis of their gender. In turn, women become token bodies who carry agency but simultaneously not exercisers of their own agency. Thus, this paper will be an analysis of how power dictates and enforces certain