Social Services During Sub Saharan Africa

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.

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.

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.

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.

HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus (Avert). It is virus that attacks the immune system, our body’s defense against disease (Avert). Individuals who become infected with HIV will find it harder to fight infections (Avert). HIV is located in semen, blood, vaginal and anal fluids, and breast milk (HIV and Aids). The most common method to become infected is through anal or vaginal sex without a condom (HIV and Aids). Other forms of contraction include using infected needles/ syringes, from mother to child during pregnancy, or breastfeeding (HIV and Aids). If left untreated, AIDS can evolve, this is when a person’s immune system becomes too weak to fight infection and can no longer defend itself (What is AIDS). Despite there not being a cure, an early diagnosis and effective treatment can enable people to live a normal, healthy life (HIV and Aids). This paper will focus on the HIV epidemic. It will compare and contrast HIV in the United States and in Kenya. The paper will review the specific populations affected, testing and counseling centers, funding and economic impact, and prevention programs each country is executing.

has approximately seventy percent of the people living with HIV. In 2011 there were 23,500,000 people living with HIV, and 1,200,000 annual AIDS deaths. The new HIV infections are 1,800,000 annually. (1) This disease is world wide and not just isolated to Sub-Saharan Africa, however, with the data from researcher's it does have the highest prevalence of the disease. There is world wide efforts in combating the spread, and research that is ongoing to try to irradiate this terrible disease. This disease may cause the extinction of mankind if we as a society are unable to control and find a cure. There are so many factors that play a role in the process of this disease, but the issues of poverty within the HIV population needs to be addressed.

In the book Religion and AIDS in Africa by Jenny Trinitapoli and Alexander Wienreb, describe the role that religion plays in interpreting, preventing, and coping with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. In my view, the variation across countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is due, in part, to different health care and political/government systems. The variation that is seen in healthcare across SSA, where Botswana where programs and access to antiretroviral therapy compared to Zambia. The other variation seen in government influence is that there is a lack of involvement in address HIV/AIDS in South Africa government due to political silence compared to Uganda.

Introduction –HIV, Human immune deficiency virus which started in late mid 90s has already devastated many people causing great economic impact on their families, communities and health care systems. In USA the first HIV patient was diagnosed in 1981 after which disease spreads rapidly by which it affects nearly 1.2 million people as of now. As per US centre for disease control and prevention Out of 1.2 million

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the majority of people in the world living with HIV/AIDS reside in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since there is currently no vaccine to prevent the spread of the infection, there have been countless attempts in the past to control the spread of HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are multiple ways of infection spread in Sub-Saharan Africa. People are contracting the disease through, drug use, sexual relations, giving birth, and blood-to-blood contact. With so many ways to contract the infection it makes the prevention of spreading the infection so difficult, especially in such a low-income country. These challenges have not stopped many scientists, educators, and health-care professionals create interventions to try and stop the wildfire, that is the spread of HIV/AIDS in Sub- Saharan Africa. Most interventions have failed and some have helped. There are a huge amount of factors that need to be carefully thought about when creating an intervention. What looks good on paper may not work for the culture of a country. Making all people in sub- Saharan Africa listen, understand and act on a plan is nearly impossible.

“Everyday the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to kill three times as many people than died during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001” (Elbe 2006, p.119). The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) weakens the immune system by destroying the cells that fight disease and infection. In the final stages of the HIV infection, it can lead to the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Not all people who are diagnosed with HIV progress to acquiring AIDS, although once you have been diagnosed with the HIV infection, you have it for life. HIV/AIDS have claimed the lives of more than 39 million people globally since the discovery (World Health Organisation 2014) with a majority of these cases being in sub-Saharan Africa.

Even though HIV has impacted the developed world, it has specifically targeted our impoverished communities and has decreased life expectancy in these areas to be an average of 20 years old. In addition, this chapter presents critical historical information and statistics to identify the origins of these diseases and the genuine numbers associated with it. This paper will explore HIV and AIDS as a disease. The first chapter will discuss the history associated with HIV and AIDS. The second chapter will explain the process of HIV and AIDS which includes the stages, symptoms and contraction. The third chapter explains the misconceptions and stereotypes of HIV and AIDS. The fourth chapter explores women and children with HIV and AIDS. Finally, the fifth chapter discusses the medical interventions and future at risk

Haiti was able to dramatically reduce its high rates of HIV/AIDS prevalence in the face of low socioeconomic development and declining Gross National Income (GNI) per capita because its existing NGO-based system for HIV/AIDS prevention was scaled up through international technical and financial assistance. The two leading NGOs in this effort, Haitian Group for the Study of Kaposi’s Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections (GHESKIO) and Partners in Health (PIH), were created at the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, but initially focused their efforts on treating the side-effects of the epidemic due to a lack of access to antiretroviral therapy (ART). HIV/AIDS thus spread rapidly amongst the population, reaching a peak incidence rate of 4% in the 1990s, and it was not until the early 2000s, when the organizations gained access to antiretroviral drugs through international assistance, that HIV/AIDS prevalence rates began their decline.

Overall, the crisis of HIV/AIDS, especially in sub-Saharan Africa is still a major issue. Perhaps the biggest factor is that developed nations have become fairly complacent when considering the disease, as not only has its prevalence dropped significantly in most areas, but treatment through anti-retroviral regimens has managed to increase an infected person’s lifespan to a level almost matching an uninfected person’s average lifespan. Those in sub-Saharan Africa face several key issues with this disease. A lack of education regarding HIV/AIDS and a lack of health care facilities and medication to combat HIV/AIDS are perhaps two of the largest. The country unfortunately faces an upcoming crisis, with the youngest generation’s parents and caregivers becoming too sick or succumbing to the disease before vital education, such as the ability to farm a landscape suffering from desertification, is passed on (Sowing Seeds of Hunger).

There are four indicators which provide evidence that this target was met. Immense progress has occurred in combating HIV/AIDS in Zambia and these indicators were used to monitor that progress. The first indicator was HIV prevalence among the population aged 15-24 years old. The goal for this indicator was to reach 15.6% or lower by 2015. Zambia had already reached the target by 2002 and by 2007 had exceeded it with 14.3% (Millennium Development Goals). These statistics show that the percent of HIV incidences in Zambia were decreasing and surpassed its goal only two years into its 15 year timeline. HIV incidences have stabilized in Zambia but the absolute number of new infections is actually rising due to population growth. Although the Zambia’s national MDG target has been met, this does not show the disparities within the country in HIV prevalence rates amongst provinces. Lusaka and Copperbelt are the densest provinces and also had the highest HIV prevalence, over 20% in 2007. This shows that HIV can spread more easily through dense places like cities. There was an increase of new HIV infections from 1998 to 2002 that could have been caused by a range of factors such as lack of awareness and use of services, low use of condoms, or low rates of male