The Epidemic Of Sub Saharan Africa

In South Africa, AIDS is one of the top causes of death. South Africa has the biggest AIDS/HIV epidemic in the world because of violence against women, poverty, and lack of education. Given this, “Africans account for nearly 70% of those who live with HIV and are dying of AIDS” (Morgenstern, Dr. Michael).

Nearly three decades ago, there was an increase in deaths of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. Developing countries have experienced the greatest HIV/AIDS morbidity and mortality, with the highest prevalence rates recorded in young adults in sub-Saharan Africa. In South Africa over three million people are killed by this disease (Macfarlene3). After this epidemic spreaded in Africa and killed people it branched out to other countries in the world.

Finally, another big problem caused by AIDS is orphans. There are eleven million orphans in Africa. “Health officials begun to refer to these parentless children as the Lost Generation…” (PBS, video). Many children in Africa are orphans as their parents were killed from the disease. The home life for these children is very different

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.

Ebola is a problem in our society today. It is a disease brought by unclean individuals.

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.

19:1 in the United States and Europe; emphasis has been placed on sexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (Hrdy,1987). Factors thought to influence this sexual transmission include promiscuity, and sexual practices that have been associated with increased risk of transmission of AIDS virus from male to female and from mother to babies (Hrdy,1987). In Africa, promiscuity seems to be the most important cultural factor contributing to the transmission of HIV. For example, Olivia had been sexually abused and has contracted AIDS earlier in her life. Whereas social and cultural factors are the direct cause for the transmission of HIV from pregnant women to babies in India because women would rather have babies with HIV than to be homeless, beaten or abandon if they don’t conceive children (Bilheimer,

Sub-Saharan Africa has the most serious HIV and AIDS plague in the world. Around 27.4% of people were living with HIV and AIDS in the year of 2013. Also, there were 1.1 million AIDS-related deaths and over 1.5 million new HIV infections in the same year. While Swaziland has the highest HIV prevalence worldwide, South Africa has the biggest epidemic out of any country.

In 2009 an estimated 33.2 million human beings were unfortunate enough to be infected with AIDS or HIV. A hefty 22.4 million of those individuals live in where the story of humanity began, Sub-Saharan Africa. The good-fortuned United States on the other end of the spectrum ,is home to 1.2 million infected. The statistics for the amount of infected in the U.S. is almost negligible in comparison to those of Africa’s ,because of the obvious difference in amount of infected ,but also in the amount of power the disease has in the confines of each spatial variation. In the growing quest for equality amongst all humanity it is a necessity to understand why Africans are bearing the statistical load and why the number of infected grow in amongst

The HIV and AIDS pandemic remains one the most serious development crises in the world (WHO, 2006). Women and children bear a disproportionate share of the burden, and in many settings continue to experience high rates of new HIV infections and of HIV-related illness and death. In 2005 alone, an estimated 540 000 children were newly infected with HIV, with about

Cases of HIV positive women raising from 2.7% of all cases in 2005 to 3.9% of cases in 2010 (Afao.org.au, 2015). In both countries the effects of HIV/AIDS are similar, with women facing a lifetime of discrimination and unfair social justice in Chad. The level of poverty experienced increases as they find it difficult to meet daily costs of living falling further below the line, creating further economic hardship. Being unable to afford antiretroviral drugs causes for the effects of the virus to worsen faster and deaths to occur from AIDS leaving family and children alone. Faced with an un-established health care system women can also transmit the virus that causes AIDS to their children which can cause for negative consequences if left un-identified as it is continually passed on if person is uneducated on how to prevent transmission (Afao.org.au, 2015...Hazel D. Dean, 2010).

In severity, however, South Africa’s story of HIV and AIDS is unique even in Africa. It remains the country with the largest AIDS epidemic in the world. South Africa is home to the greatest number of HIV-positive people in the world, totaling over 5.7 million in 2007 (UNAIDS 40). But why was South Africa hit so hard when other countries came away comparatively unscathed? The answers can be found by examining South Africa’s social structure, looking at issues in traditional society such as gender inequity, polygamy, promiscuity, condom use, dry sex, widow inheritance, rape, and women’s societal role. When we consider these issues and customs that keep African women powerless, we begin to realize why these causes represent well more than half of all cases of HIV transmission, and why factoring culture into the equation is so vital (Biakolo 43).

Nigeria has one of the most prominent HIV/AIDS population in the world. While HIV/AIDS is a completely preventable disease, one would expect a considerable decrease in the amount of new cases each year. Each year Nigeria sees a total of 250,000 new cases and currently there are 3.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS. Sixty-three percent of those people aged 0-24 and the prevalence rates for young women are higher than those for men. HIV/AIDS impacts the physical body as well as emotional stability and psychological stability. Young women are forced to stop going to school to take over their household duties once their parents get sick from the virus. Parents die leaving children orphaned with no family, or living with grandparents. There are many ways that these children can prevent themselves from becoming infected, but without getting the proper information about the disease like how it can be prevented, treated, and without receiving any education on the topic, these children do not stand a chance against the ever growing virus. These children are having sex earlier and earlier and these children do not know the consequences of having sex so early and possibly without protection. Their life could be positively impacted by some of the interventions mentioned here. They would help prevent these children from having unprotected sex and the risk of getting or transmitting HIV onto others.

In 2014, HIV/AIDS was reported as the second leading cause of death among adolescents globally, after road injury (WHO, 2014) .It is estimated that the number of HIV related deaths is rising among the adolescents predominantly in the African region, at a time when HIV-related deaths are decreasing in other population groups (WHO, 2014). HIV-infected adolescents largely belong to two distinct groups; those who acquired HIV through mother to child transmission, and those who acquired HIV during their teens mostly through sexual transmission. Long-term HIV-infected adolescent survivors who acquired HIV perinatally or in infancy are usually heavily ART experienced and may have a clinical course that is different from that of adolescents

Countries are making historic gains towards ending the AIDS epidemic: 700 000 fewer new HIV infections across the world in 2011 than in 2001. latest data show that a 50% reduction in the rate of new HIV infections (HIV incidence) has been achieved in 25 low- and middle-income countries between 2001 and 2011. more than half of these countries are in subSaharan Africa where the majority of the new HIV infections occur. In a further nine countries the rate of new HIV infections fell steeply—by at least one third between 2001 and 2011. The national declines in HIV incidence in populations shows that sustained investments and increased political leadership for the AIDS response are paying dividends. In particular, countries with a concurrent scale up of HIV prevention and treatment programmes are seeing a drop in new HIV infections to record lows. Prevention leads to behaviour change; treatment reduces a person’s viral load. Both reduce the potential for the virus to be transmitted. The historic slow-down indicates HIV