Various Examples of Fighting HIV and AIDS - Coursework Example

Social and political problems are important reasons for, and obstacles in the fight against, the spread of HIV/AIDS across the world.’ AIDS is an epidemic that requires strong action from the society and the government to restrict the spread of the virus. The disease was initially considered as a medically curable one by certain nations, while others believed that it would not make its way to socially conservative family centric societies. The inaction of government in terms of allocation of resources for drugs and drug research has also added to the concerns in dealing with HIV/AIDS. These were the initial response of nations and even when people are educated about the disease there seems to social exclusion of infected people in certain parts of the world. The fight against AIDS is hindered by political policies that do not give importance to approve drugs related to AIDS through the FDA. The social movement group ACT NOW took an initiative to observe civil disobedience and take control of the FDA in Washington DC. The extreme step was taken to grab the attention of the state to take action related to the treatment of AIDS. The Reagan administration and later the Bush administration were inattentive to the epidemic of AIDS. The ignorance towards the education and treatment of HIV/AIDS was explicit during the Reagan administration when more than 36000 individuals were infected with the virus and more than 20000 had already died. Though AIDS was later called as the number one health issue of America, the administration continuously avoided to take a coordinated and well financed action towards the problem. In these circumstances, social organizations like ACT UP revolted against the government during campaign speeches and by exhibiting the irresponsible stand of the government in t-shirts and AIDSgate signs. The government stand to ignore action for AIDS was particularly pointed towards state actors and institutions through protests and media supported actions. The social organizations acted as pressure groups to effect policy decisions to avoid needless death that arise due to the lack of responsibility of people who control the resources of the nation. When it comes to pharmaceutical companies they pose as a social concern because companies control the price of drugs used to treat AIDS and make unfriendly decisions about the development of drugs to cure HIV/AIDS. The objective of these companies is restricted to profits and their decisions are not socially oriented to treat the epidemic and oppress people with AIDS inhibiting their chances of survival (Conrad & Leiter 2003 p.134). Since policymakers and politicians are not serious about allocating resources to morally disturbing issues like HIV/AIDS, social groups like Global AIDS Alliance, PHR, Health GAP and Student Global AIDS campaign have made crucial contributions to influence Washington lawmakers that common people in America require more public funds to fight AIDS. The failure of the state to initiate action has been pointed out by social organizations and pressure groups to convince the state that fighting AIDS is crucial as dealing with any other social and health issue in America. These groups had to use non violent civil disobedience action for which they were arrested. The activists chained themselves during the protest to make a fence of the presidential mansion agitating against the inaction from the Bush administration (Irwin, Millen & Fallows 2003 p.180). These pressure groups and lobbyist’s real work is to educate the lawmakers about the need to fight AIDS because most the funds are diverted towards the war on terrorism and other military action. Activists are vigilant and are involved in deliberating the policy and in engaging the politicians to translate the policy into real money, real law and real action because a health crisis of such magnitude and complexity cannot be dealt without huge sums of money. The policy from the state requires action to strengthen education, ARV treatment, prevention initiatives, accelerating AIDS vaccine research and the construction of health infrastructure in poor nations. The most important factor that is missing in the fight against HIV/AIDS in poor nations around the world is money (Irwin, Millen & Fallows 2003 p.181). The fight to tackle HIV/ AIDS can be implemented only through strategic communications that requires a strong approach to influence national policymakers, religious and traditional leaders, local government officials, community leaders and the public that can influence individual behavior and social norms. There is a requirement for advocacy, community and social mobilization to fight AIDS in the society. The advocacy is to strengthen the commitment of political involvement and the social mobilization is aimed to boost national response. There should also be intervention from a national perspective to improve the response of communities. Further, the state and the society have to gear up methods to create awareness about safe sexual practice. Communication is an important tool to reduce the AIDS stigma which can be achieved only through the aggressive involvement of the society and the state. The political involvement of certain nations has played a key role in reducing the incidence of HIV infections. There has been a dramatic decline in the rate of HIV infections in Uganda due to government action. The prevalence of HIV in Uganda peaked to 15 percent in 1991 and recorded a decline to 5 percent by the year 2001. The president of Uganda, Museveni is credited for the success of the nation in controlling the spread of AIDS. President Museveni geared up early and relentless efforts to fight HIV / AIDS boosting the factors of Ugandan society in all levels of the government, communities, NGO’s and religious organization and elements of the civil society to fight AIDS and its causes. The aggressive action taken by the Ugandans were also due to a natural course of AIDS because people became responsible when they saw their relative and friends dying. The same response has not taken place in other high prevalence regions and there has been aggressive action in nations where there is a low prevalence of the epidemic. For example, Senegal has been successful in fighting AIDS though the rate of infection was only 1.1 percent in the year 1990 and registered a decline to 0.5 percent by the year 2001 (Mckee, Bertrand, Becker & Becker-Benton 2004 p.55). Senegal could control the epidemic due to social factors like religious and conservative society and the nation was attacked by the less virulent HIV-2 instead of the virulent HIV-1. However, a behavior changes was not a factor in Senegal due to fear, rather like Uganda, religious and political leadership enabled the prevention efforts to curb AIDS in the initial stage. Similarly, Cambodia and Thailand acted with a similar resolve to fight AIDS / HIV. The Thailand government strongly supported 100 percent condom use in commercial sex facilities that reduced the number of new infections that stood at a high of 140000 in 1991 to 30000 in 2001. It is noted from the experience of various nations that if religious, political and social leaders do not openly and fully support the efforts to fight the spread of HIV early, the nation remains prone to the unabated spread of the virus. In the case of India, government official commented that AIDS is a foreign disease and would not spread in a family oriented society. However, in 2002, the prevalence rate of AIDS in India stood at 0.8 percent with around 4.58 million infected individuals. India also has bold leaders who had taken serious actions to curb HIV/AIDS. The chief minister of a South Indian state Andhra Pradesh has broken the silence and has asked the concerned action of state partners and personnel to act against HIV/AIDS. Advocacy is required to influence a state, nation or district to reinforce the fight against HIV / AIDS by making change in the allocation of resources, in drafting laws and policies like life skills education as a part of school curriculum, reduced school fees for orphans, availability of condom in government health care centers, budgetary provision for testing HIV, legal age for marriage and sexual consent. Advocacy is also practices to speed up the implementation of national policies to prevent HIV and AIDS, intervention and support that create an environment for strategic intervention. The implementation of action to fight AIDS need not require finalization but requires only initiation from the state. For example, the Ethiopian government initiated a national AIDS agenda in 1988 but remained inactive in fighting the disease (Mckee, Bertrand, Becker & Becker-Benton 2004 p.56). At the same time, the Ugandan government did not initiate a policy till 1996 but took a concerted action and registered a success in controlling the epidemic. Both the Ugandan and Ethiopian government approved AIDS policies towards the end of the decade (Mckee, Bertrand, Becker & Becker-Benton 2004 p.57). In several places AIDS became a concern even before there were any local cases. AIDS was usually considered as a foreign disease with an ideology that is independent of the actual reason. In certain countries, it was considered that AIDS was artificial and a genocide device similar to a cold war weapon which was out of control. Africa, which is blamed for the birth of HIV, AIDS was considered as a mode of sabotage driven against the Third World. The epidemiology of AIDS is similar in the United States and Brazil, but the political culture is different in these two countries. The political culture of Brazil is different due to its influence in clinical practices, local activism and representations of epidemiology (Bastos 1999 p.68). The efforts to fight AIDS in Brazil coincided with efforts from internationally sponsorship to general a global resolve to AIDS. World Health Organization was among other donor agencies and groups of people from developed nations who sponsored the fight against AIDS. With the increase in funds, the global response to fight the disease increases, assisting organization to coordinate international action and develop local response (Bastos 1999 p.69). In Brazil, the first cases attracted spotlight because it affected gays and famous people and was in contrast to the normal shameful silence that accompanies other endemic diseases that was not reported in the media and that mostly affected poor Brazilians. These diseases were Chagas disease, malaria and schistosomiasis. AIDS gained media attention as a disease of the First World and was also referred to as disease of the rich (Bastos 1999 p.70). This privileged association of AIDS with society had two implications in Brazil. On one hand, media report was used as an excuse for the lack of attention given by the government since it claimed that the AIDS was prevalent among a small minority who can afford to avail health care in foreign countries and the government gave importance to fight other diseases in Brazil (Bastos 1999 p.72). AIDS gained public awareness also on the bases of the diagnosis of the disease among popular people who contacted the disease through contaminated blood. These popular figures then took up the issue with other social concerns like citizenship, empowerment, social compromise, social control, government policies and the fight for fundamental human rights. Issues like corruption, illegal blood bands and the inefficiency of the government was given prominence through the campaign of popular people who acquired the virus and helped the mobilization of organization that had wider agendas. The fight for citizenship post military rule in Brazil served as a larger umbrella for anti-AIDS organizations thus hindering the activities against the spread of AIDS (Bastos 1999 p.73). The vulnerability of Brazil in multiplying the epidemic was due to the economic and social problems post the authoritarian dictatorship and the tentative democracy. The increase in transmission was mainly due to the lack of policies in an economic dependent state where the resources to fight AIDS is scarce and is qualitative different from wealthier nations where the state has been pressurized to increase the response towards the fight against the epidemic in a number of ways (Daniel & Parker 1993 p.28). Pilot projects were important instruments in Germany for field trails for health and social policy before the implementation of reform measures. This method was used when there was inadequate know how to deal with large scale issues. These projects are proposed and launched by voluntary associations and governmental institutions responsible for health and social policy. It was not controversial to use these projects in which the Federal Government had no direct responsibility and this was a time when AIDS emerged. Pilot projects were an effective method with the participation of 309 local public health institutions in West Germany with adequate funds to employ one specialist either a psychologist, a doctor or a social worker. The initiative was successful in interviewing over 32000 in person and 20000 people over phone (Rosenbrock & Wright p.53). Non governmental organizations were unable to fight against AIDS in an effective manner due to the lack of clarity regarding the epidemic and due to the lack of resources and other limitations. Governments left the treatment of AIDS with non governmental organization because the initial assumption was that AIDS is a medically curable disease. Heterosexuals in Mexico were far from viewing AIDS as a problem during the 1980’s because there were no heterosexual and gay organizations like those in Australia and the US that gave funding and action to fight the disease (Amor, Fineberg & Mann 1992 p.140). In future, the fight against AIDS should envisage cross nation comparative policy research to initiate drug policy regarding major changes in Europe. In western European nations, the epidemic has created a shift from traditional health policies to control infectious disease on the basis of rigid and compulsory interventions (Moatti & Sanfort 2003 p.7). It may be concluded that a cooperative action of the government and society has been crucial in fighting HIV/AIDS around the world. The involvement of communities, religious groups and the state to fight the disease has registered a success in reducing the rate of the epidemic while those nations which ignored the menace in its initial stages are continuing to multiply the rate of new infections. Bibliography Amor, J.S., Fineberg, H.V. & Mann, J.M. 1992 AIDS: prevention through education : a world view‎ New York: Oxford University Press Bastos, C. 1999 Global Responses to AIDS: Science in Emergency Bloomington: Indiana University Press Conrad, P & Leiter, V. 2003 Health and health care as social problems Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Daniel, H & Parker, R.G. 1993 Sexuality, Politics and AIDS in Brazil: In Another World?  New York: Routledge Irwin, A.C., Millen, J.V. & Fallows, D. 2003 Global AIDS: Myths and Facts: Tools for Fighting the AIDS Cambridge: South End Press Mckee, N., Bertrand, J.T., Becker, B.L. & Becker-Benton, A. 2004 Strategic communication in the HIV/AIDS epidemic London: Sage Moatti, J. & Sanfort, T. 2003 AIDS in Europe New York: Routledge Rosenbrock, R. & Wright, M.T. 2000 Partnership and pragmatism New York: Routledge Read More