The Invisible Cure : Collective Efficacy, Aids, And Today

“Since the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, 1.7 million Americans have been infected with HIV and more than six hundred and fifty thousand have died of AIDS.” (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). AIDS is a serious disease that needs to be treated from an early stage so that it helps long-term health from deteriorating. There are many scientists that have tried to form a vaccine for AIDS to help people around the world that suffer with it. Helen Epstein worked as a scientist in Africa in search of an AIDS vaccine. “AIDS INC” is a chapter from her book The Invisible Cure where Epstein observes different prevention programs in Africa. Its hard for the individuals in Africa to trust scientists coming from other countries and talk openly with them and that contributes toward social cohesion. Despite the fact that social cohesion has many different definitions Epstein focuses on talking openly with

An upsetting pattern has risen inside of the previous couple of years, demonstrating a relentless increment of ladies being contaminated with HIV/AIDS every year. This pattern is particularly conspicuous in sub-Saharan Africa. While the illness is contaminating more ladies than any other time in recent memory and now represents about portion of those living with HIV around

This book is a very interesting and detailed analysis of the AIDS epidemic. It is very fact heavy, yet it still manages to entertain the reader and capture his or her attention. This riveting narrative describes pretty much everything you need to know about HIV and AIDS. The ideas behind this compelling work were collectively put together and written by an award-winning AIDS researcher named Daniel Halperin and his coauthor, a Johannesburg Washington Post reporter, Craig Timberg. This exciting story tells you about how Western colonial powers first sparked the flame that would later come to be known as the AIDS crisis. They unfortunately helped to rapidly ignite and spread HIV and AIDS across the world. Tinderbox uses examples from

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.

There has been countless conversations over whether AIDS warrants an exceptional response. As such, AIDS is exceptional, but not everywhere. Exceptionalism grew as a Western reaction to a once inadequately understood epidemic but is still relevant in the recent multi-dimensional worldwide response. The attack on AIDS exceptionalism has happened because of the extent of subsidy directed to the disease and the firmness that AIDS activists rank it above other health concerns. The strongest critics of exceptionalism claim that the AIDS response has undercut health structures and systems in developing countries.

In John Iliffe book A story the African Aids Epidemic his argument about why Africa has had the worst HIV/AIDS epidemic is because it was the first epidemic. The virus was in Africa for a long time before actually becoming an epidemic or even having a name. The biggest problem that leads to the epidemic, was the silence of the people ”Silence expansion” (John, 158). People had the symptoms but did not speak out. Fear and shame were their main reason, but also because they did not know about the virus even if they had symptoms. Before the disease was named, the local people from Uganda

On the other hand, HIV, which stands for human immunodeficiency virus, is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, which has 62% of the world’s HIV cases. Because sub-Saharan Africa is home to 70% of the poorest people in the world, people lack the skills and the money they need to survive. Therefore, the only way they can get their basic needs is the risky behavior. For example, women have to engage in sexual transactions for commercial

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.

More than 90% of the infections came from the global south. In class we have discussed how underfunded third world countries like Africa are. Their women can’t afford contraceptives let alone medicine to prevent HIV. Women in areas like these don’t have many civil rights and depend on the help of others to aide them. The article talks about how there is new aides available but the road blocks of getting it to the people who need it interfere greatly. The topic of aids is not discussed like it should be. The effect it can have on one’s life is greatly underestimated by today’s youth. It has to be understood that the disease is still out there and a cure hasn’t come to the surface yet. It’s dangerous and life threatening and young people need to be educated on

During the timeline of aids, studies show that the virus probably transferred to humans in Africa between 1884 and 1924 (Anabel Kanabus, 2009). There were signs of it spreading through Haiti in 1966; estimations of this virus entering the United States are in the 1970. African doctors see a rise in opportunistic infections; this means that it takes advantage of the opportunity offered by a weakened immune system. Western scientists and doctors remain ignorant of the growing epidemic; this is what caused HIV to spread and kill innocent lives. The first case of aids found was through gay men, following by drug users injecting themselves not using a clean sterilized needle. In 1982, aids were reported in several European countries, the name “AIDS” (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), is created. In 1983, AIDS is reported among non-drug using women and children, Experts become more confident that the cause of AIDS is infectious.

What if there was a disease that thousands of people a day contracted with no vaccine or cure, what do you think the world would look like? The world would look much like it does today, as there is a disease that infects thousands of people each and every day with no vaccine or cure. That disease is HIV/AIDS. A disease that is so powerful its position in our society has moved from epidemic to pandemic. In this paper we will explore HIV/AIDS and my one-day journey at one of Delaware County’s largest full service HIV/AIDS providers and how it changed my perspective on the disease and the people who carry it.

HIV/AIDS is a devastating disease that has predominated in Africa due to the long incubation period of the virus, poverty, sexual promiscuousness, urbanization, trading routes, lack of knowledge, medical advances (use of needles, blood transfusion), and gender inequalities. Although the government denied the existence of HIV/ AIDS for many years, they have begun working towards various solutions such as the ABC (Abstinence, Be faithful, and Condom use) method and United States initiatives like PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief). However, there is still more work to be done. Healthcare policies should further HIV prevention interventions, such as providing more access to testing, encouraging behavioral changes (e.g. condom use), and establishing programs that reach and empower women within a patriarchal society. Strengthening the African health system will ultimately reside in strong national leadership and governance in resource-limited settings to improve access and health outcomes for HIV/AIDS patients.

Africa is arguably the poorest continent in the world as shown by statistics from World Health Organization, United Nation Children’s Fund and the World Bank. Growing up in Africa, I have been a first- hand witness to abject poverty which I believe is interconnected to illiteracy, higher infant and maternal mortality rates, life expectancy and the continuous presence of diseases. Even though Southern Africa has made some strides addressing some of these issues, the country’s inability to combat one of the deadliest diseases in the world, HIV/AIDS, remains a prominent public health concern. “The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) targets the immune system and weakens people’s

HIV/AIDS remains one of the most highly known communicable diseases in South Africa (Avert, 2015). In addition to the 6.2 million people currently living with HIV, World Health Organization (2015) states that 200,000 lives are claimed every year, and the numbers are constantly rising. South Africa currently still remains the continent most greatly affected by HIV/AIDS (Lewis, 2011). This paper will focus on the aspects of HIV and AIDS in regards to nature of the problem, the affected population and risk factors, as well as the social and economic consequences the country faces with interventions that can be implemented to decrease the transmission of disease.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in Africa is the most affected area that it has reverse expected population growth to a net decrease (Oxford Analytica Ltd). Africa is the number one countries with the highest rate of HIV and AIDS among the other fifteen countries (Patel). HIV and AIDS spread among adults, teens, and even to children who know nothing. Around 35 to 42 million people are living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and AIDS all over the world. However, about 25.5 million of the 35 to 42 million people live in Africa. So far in 2003 alone, there has been 2.2 million death in Africa (UNAIDS). With so many deaths in a year, there is more than one funeral happening on a daily basis. This paper first examines the primary root causes then the pertinent consequences of the phenomenon. It will then focus on prospects of decreasing the rapidly spread of AIDS in Africa.