The Pros And Cons Of AIDS Testing For Healthcare Professionals

It is often cited that the HIV/Aids epidemic that hit the United States in the 1980’s (though there is some evidence that it started even before then), came into light due to several high profile incidents and the eventual loss of several thousand lives. Many believe that due to

Carl Zimmer the guest speaker of this broadcast states that in 1981 doctors described for the first time a new disease, a new syndrome which affected mostly homosexual men. The young men in Los Angeles were dying and the number of cases was growing faster and faster. The number of deaths was increasing from eighty to six hundred and twenty five in just the first few months. After the first few cases in LA, AIDS was declared to be one of the deadliest pandemics the world had ever seen after the plague in the Middle Ages.

In 1992, Rolling Stone magazine published a story that argued about the oral polio vaccine (OPV), which was developed by Hilary Koprowski as a possible source of the HIV as well as the AID epidemic. In December 1993, Dr. Koprowski sued Rolling Stone and the writer of the article, and the clarification statement is been issued in the magazine, saying that the editors of Rolling Stone wish to explain that they never intended to suggest in the article that there is any logical proof, nor do they have enough knowledge of any scientific evidence, that Dr. Koprowski, a famous scientist, was in fact the one who introduced the HIV to a large number of human population or that he is the father of AIDS epidemic…. Dr. Koprowski's pioneering work in developing oral polio vaccines has assisted spare suffering and death to hundreds of thousands of possible victims of paralytic poliomyelitis and is maybe one of his greatest

In this epidemic outbreak the government showed a lack of insensitivity towards the CDC when they wanted a way to test the blood that was being donated but the government felt as it was not cost-efficient (And the Brand Played On, 1993). This prevented the CDC from coming to conclusions that this virus AIDs may have been transmitted between homosexual men at bathhouses but it was spreading because of blood transfusion.

Getting tested for HIV/AIDs is important for one’s health, relationships, and overall future. HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency virus; the virus that causes the HIV infection.HIV is spread through the blood, semen, genital fluids, or a HIV infected woman’s breast milk. However, the most common ways to contract HIV is from having unprotected sex, sharing needles and syringes, or same sex intercourse. The growth of new HIV infections continues to rise. According to the Centers of Disease Control (CDC), currently in the United States 1.2 million people are infected with HIV. Among that large group of people, twenty percent of the people were unaware of their status. Consequently, the twenty

Getting tested for HIV/AIDs is important for one’s health, relationships, and overall future. HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency virus; the virus that causes the HIV infection.HIV is spread through the blood, semen, genital fluids, or a HIV infected woman’s breast milk. However, the most common ways to contract HIV is from having unprotected sex, sharing needles and syringes, or same sex intercourse. The growth of new HIV infections continues to rise. According to the Centers of Disease Control (CDC), currently in the United States 1.2 million people are infected with HIV. Among that large group of people, twenty percent of the people were unaware of their status. Consequently, the twenty

come back to the patient within twenty minutes (“U.S. Statistics). While trying to advocate safe sex, schools, large companies, and even religious facilities are being used as centers to conduct HIV testing . There are several types of tests to fit the need of the individual, these include tests that search for HIV antibodies, antigen tests, rapid tests, and protein tests (“HIV Testing”). These tests search for the anti-body virus in a blood, urine, or spit sample and are an extremely common test taken in the young community. So if they are so simple, why can’t a gay man be tested for HIV before donating as opposed to not being able to donate at all? This question has been asked by many who are pushing toward a break of the gay blood

In order to understand why the public had such an intense reaction, one must look into what AIDS truly is. In 1980, doctors find the presences of a new disease. At the very least, it seemed new. They called it ‘new’ because they were forced to resort to

Additionally, there are many oral manifestations of the disease, and the dentist is the health care professionally who is the first to see these lesions. It is the responsibility of the dentist to play an active role in detecting HIV in patients and to do so in a timely manner. It is important that dentists recognize the important role they play in managing the HIV epidemic, and if this fact is widely propagated then more cases can be detected early, which leads to more favorable outcomes for patients. There are many people living with HIV that see their dentist but not their physician. Henceforth, a system must be in place allowing dentists to refer patients who have tested positive. If this is done, the ongoing fight against the HIV epidemic will continue to yield even greater progress than it did since Dr. Silverman’s study.

Summary: HIV is an existing issue in Middleboro and in the United States. Hillsboro county and capital city have the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the state. 70% of the people living with AIDS in Hillsboro County are white and the remaining 30% of people living with aids are distributed among African Americans, Hispanics and other [1]. In capital city the largest proportion of AIDS patients are white with 48% then African Americans with 36%. New HIV cases are frequently occurring in the male population, statewide there is a rate of 11.5% increase of new HIV infections in adults and adolescents [1]. There has been an Increase in HIV rates in Capital city and Hillsboro County during 2004 and 2014, from 21.3% to 22.9% in capital city, and 17.2% to 20.9% In Hillsboro County [1]. This increase of HIV/AIDS is a call for a population health solution. The rising rates of HIV lead us to believe there are barriers for HIV needs.

The first official documentation of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome also known as Aids, was recorded by the US centers for disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In the early 1980’s several different reports began to come about of a small number of men whom had been diagnosed with a very rare disease. This disease was very similar to cancer, many of the men that got this disease were gay or bisexual. American’s assumed it was gay- related immune deficiency or gay cancer until women were being diagnosed with the same disease. Many scientists began to study AIDS and assumed that it was related to sexual contact and the transfer of contaminated blood. In the 1980’s, a woman by the name of Mary Fisher gave a speech, 1922 Republican National Convention Address. She gave this speech for the purpose of informing the world she had been diagnosed with Aids and the disease should not be ignored and that this disease does not discriminate. In her speech, she wanted everyone to realize the importance of knowing about this disease and people that have it should not keep it a secret, it shouldn 't be hidden.

The scaling up of ART follows the public health approach of using the standardized and simplified treatment regimens that are consistent with international standards (Bennett et al., 2012). However the treatment with ARV drugs can be accompanied by emergence and transmission of HIV DR. The emergence of HIV DR can limit the treatment options that will need switching to the second-line regimens that is costly and can produce long term toxicities (Bennett et al., 2012). In order to counter the effects of HIV DR, WHO developed a global strategy for the prevention and minimizing the emergence of HIV DR (Bennett et al., 2008, 2012). The WHO strategy involves three elements:

Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a pandemic which infects the human immune system with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).1 The term HIV/AIDS describes the entire cascade and progression of disease from the initial infection with HIV to the later, more severe stage of AIDS. It is a global pandemic that affects 35 million people (2013) worldwide and 35, 287 people in Australia. 2,3 Dentists need to be acknowledgeable of this rapidly spreading disease and understand how to manage patients with HIV/AIDS.

The growth of HIV cases in Indonesia is one of the most rapid ones among the countries in Asia (UNAIDS 2013). Indonesia’s Ministry of Health estimates that more than 500.000 people in Indonesia will become infected with HIV in 2014 unless there is an acceleration of HIV prevention programs (UNICEF Indonesia 2012). In Indonesia, the testing of HIV currently is done in voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) clinics in selected hospitals. The patients are required to visit the clinic to do the testing and counseling. VCT has been shown to have a role in both HIV prevention and as an entry point to treatment (UNAIDS 2000). This program has been one of the most important parts of national strategic plan to prevent and control HIV in Indonesia

After reading the five given articles carefully there are critical points that I would like to articulate in my reaction paper. These articles provoked me to think that we are blessed to have health professional that were able to discover HIV/AIDS and the causes of Kaposi 's Sarcoma and Pneumocystis pneumonia of homosexual men in July 1981, following the report of these cases of PCP and cases of other rare life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers in America we began to recognize the importance of being aware of HIV/AIDS.