Aids as a Global Issue, Policies in America and South Africa - Essay Example

? al affiliation: Introduction Global health is a political element which relates to the health of the whole universe, andmoves beyond the political and geographical boundaries (Holtz, 2012, p. 3). The political boundaries include both governments and non governmental institutions. The concept of global health was documented with the formation of world health organization, which was set up after the Second World War. The body was set up as intergovernmental agency with the aim of leading and coordinating global health functions. The world healthy is improved presently upon economic development of nations through governmental and non governmental agencies cooperation. The world health organization initiated efforts to improve global health by formation of funds and partnership such as the HIV/AIDs global fund (Bhargava, 2006). The history of HIV and aids is a quite a brief one. As recent as 1970s, nobody was aware of this deadly menace. HIV/AIDs have since then become one of the biggest perils to the health and development of human beings. Currently, there is no cure for HIV/AIDs, though treatment has advanced immensely since the early and the mid 1990s. This was partly due to development in healthcare antiretroviral drugs, which help people with HIV to live healthy and longer life without developing AIDS, only if they will take the drugs every day. The first aids case was identified in early 1980s in United States, and the agent that caused aids came to be known as HIV in 1983. There are currently more than thirty million people around the globe living with HIV virus as at 2007, with 2.1 million deaths reported if aids, whilst new infections were recorded from 2.5 million people. The number of deaths caused by HIV/ aids continues to year by year, as 34 million people were living with HIV virus by the end of 2010. It is anticipated that 2.7 million people become infected with HIV around the globe. In spite of the fact that HIV/AIDs is in every part of the globe, some regions are worst hit than others. The most affected region is the African continent, mostly in the sub-Saharan Africa region. Similarly, the HIV pandemic is spreading speedily in central Asia and Eastern Europe, as the percentage growth of people living with HIV has augmented by 250% between year 2001 and 2010. While west European nations record new infections transmitted through heterosexuals sex, America records only a third of new infections from heterosexuals. Though prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDs is known, few individuals have access to essential services. Few countries whether rich, middle or low income nations have attained universal treatment access. These are countries such as Chile, Botswana, Cuba and Cambodia. In middle and low income nations, less than fifty percent of infected people have access to antiretroviral drugs. Moreover, there is low access to HIV prevention tools such as condoms, HIV education and health programs to prevent transmission of HIV to children from their sick mothers. In addition to taking the lives of human beings, the HIV/AIDs epidemic causes enormous financial and economic costs. HIV reversed the development gains achieved in the previous years, while lowering the life expectancy every year. This is a clear indication that AID is a global health issue, and different countries adopt policies to deal with the HIV/AIDs endemic (Hinds, 2007). Policies and practices used to deal with HIV and AIDs in America Reducing new HIV infections policy In terms of reducing infections, America mounted response from affected communities, the public sector, businesses, public health expert’s scientific and pharmaceutical companies and other affected stakeholder like the religious groups. The policies that America employed to reduce HIV infections comprise of HIV testing to enable individuals become aware of their health status, as thereby take proper precautions to preserve their HIV status. Effective screening of blood supply is another initiative America uses to reduce new HIV infections through blood transfusions. The American government has sponsored research to screen expectant mothers during pregnancy to decrease mother to child spread. There has been a reduction in infections from drug use injections, which was attained through comprehensive drug prevention and treatment programs. Advances in HIV therapies are another initiative adopted to extend the quality of life of infected persons, eventually lowering the risk of HIV transmission to others. South Africa has had similar policies to those of America in reducing new infections. South Africa has the highest number of people living with HIV/AIDs in sub Saharan region, accounting for 5.7 million infected people. South Africa has seen massive decline of mother to child transmission since 2009, keeping in mind that95% of expectant women received treatment to prevent infection of mother to child. Annual infection in children has declined from 56500 to 29100 from 2009-2011. The company has also embraced large scale communication campaigns to increase consciousness of HIV/AIDS and other health issues. Condom use and distribution has also increased from 31%in 2001 to 64.8% in 2008. HIV/AIDs education has been incorporated as part of the school curriculum in 2002. The South African government has gone a step further than America by introducing a voluntary medical male circumcision to reduce sexual transmission from men to women. The number of circumcised men increased from 9168 men in 2009 to 131,117 in 2010. This program seeks to prevent half a million new infections in ten years. Increasing access to care and improving health outcomes for people living with HIV policy Though there is not a known cure for HIV, there are several treatments that an infected person can take to extend life expectancy. In America, there have been improvements in healthcare services through Medicare, Medicaid and the Ryan HIV/AIDS program, yet many people with HIV do not have access to the required medical care. However, the affordable care act has largely expanded access to insurance cover for people living with HIV. Moreover, there law ensures that people living with HIV benefit from the several measures that aim to enhance the quality of care, as well as integration of services. The Ryan white HIV/AIDs program offers services to the uninsured people who are left out by private and public insurance coverage. The program also seeks to extend to insurance coverage to people living HIV into care and train them as well The White House, 2010). Similarly, South Africa has also made the largest domestic investment in HIV/AIDs services. The disease also poses a challenge on South Africa financial resources. Nonetheless, the country seeks to ensure that 80% of people living HIV have access to treatment along with care by 2016. This will be achieved through the national strategic plan (NSP). The country’s health systems trust forecasts that additional US $ 5.3 billion will be required to sustain and maintain HIV/AIDs response in order to attain the national strategic plan. Children living with HIV policy The CWLA (Child Welfare League of America) acknowledged that the HIV pandemic will have devastating impacts on families, adolescents and children. In reaction to that, the child welfare league set up a national wide taskforce on children and HIV infection. The taskforce has offered leadership and empathetic guidance to CWLA and its members of staff, as well as the member agencies from across the country on policy issues, programs and designs with regards to children and families with HIV/AIDs. The task force renamed to the national taskforce on HIV infection and children, adolescents and families. The taskforce has two main concerns, one is that the spread of HIV among teens necessitates for a long term emphasis on adolescents as a forgotten populace. The taskforce also seeks to ensure that the entire family of a child or parent living with HIV virus has to be taken as the focus of the community’s help and support. The taskforce has enlarged to incorporate community based services for families living with HIV in its leadership and guidance role. These includes child day care service, group residential care programs and out of home care to serve children living HIV/AIDs (Anderson, 1999, p IV). South Africa on its part does not have a body to deal with children with HIV, but offers healthcare treatment for children with HIV. HIV treatment for children has increased by 32000 children in 2007, which marks a 250% increase. The CHER study established that the mortality risk has decreased by 75 percent for children who began treatment before 12 months. The South African government is dedicated to testing every child exposed to HIV and offer antiretroviral drugs to all children who are HIV positive. Reducing HIV-related disparities and health inequalities policy HIV transmission has mainly been concentrated in underserved groups. This issue transcends distinct measures like mortality and morbidity rates for people with HIV virus. In spite of the HIV threat being real in some communities, many people rank it lower than the basic needs like food, shelter and safety. In other societies, people give priority to HIV prevention and care, yet prevention services are rarely accessible (Sheehan, 2008). The America government has a national reaction for the HIV pandemic. The affordable care act is currently the largest federal effort by America to address health disparities and discrimination for people living with HIV. By immensely broadening access to healthcare for all, the American federal government is taking is taking particular steps to support treatment observance for people with HIV. In addition, the government is committed to conducting a research on the causes of differences in health upshots and then re-centering efforts on combination tactics to target high risk communities (Levinson, 2004; Lasaki, Cook & O'Brien, 2009). This is a step in creating conditions for serious progress to reduce health inequalities related to HIV. The government is also focusing on community level approaches that have been missing in action to. These approaches seek to change the circumstances in which transmission of HIV occurs, as well as addressing the factors influencing discriminatory health outcomes among HIV infected people. The approaches also seek to reduce discrimination and stigma for people living with HIV/AIDs in the society. Unlike in America that has a narrow gap in disparity for people living with HIV/AIDs, South Africa does not meet the needs of the high prevalence settings. Whereas communities have advanced means of dealing with stress, the exhaustion of resources changes the social life and care giving networks. Support networks are usually undermined by stigma that is associated with HIV/AIDs because; families are restrained from seeking overt help by secrecy and fears of rejection. Additionally, barriers in access to treatment and support programs are constrained by the large number of families affected by HIV, since the country has the largest number of people living with HIV. Additionally, the racial classification of people living with HIV/AIDs as whites, Africans and coloureds create disparities in many spheres of South Africans including access to health services (Kalichman, 270). Policy on achieving a more coordinated national response to the HIV epidemic America engages in numerous activities in how it reacts to HIV. The country has had a global leadership in how it prevents and provides healthcare and social support to HIV infected people through research achievements, persistent advocacy and other observable accomplishments. The country has also learnt vital lessons on how to involve affected groups, as well as how to muster larger society sectors to be concerned with situations that are highly stigmatized, drug use, sexuality and other aspects that magnify the country’s cultural divides. As part of the policy to attain a coordinated national response to epidemic, the federal government of America invests about $ 19 billion per annum to respond to domestic HIV pandemic. This is a clear indication that the nation has committed a substantial amount of financial resources to build up a serious rejoinder to minimizing the HIV epidemic (The White House, 2010). Similar to America, South Africa has adopted a policy to finance and fight the HIV endemic. In 2000, the government set aside $ 28.5 million, but this figure has almost doubled, with the current annual allocation standing at US $ 258 million. The increase results from the government’s decision to finance two health policies for HIV/ aids treatment and prevention. The country offers drugs to lower the likelihood of HIV positive mothers transmitting the virus to their children during birth. The other policy distributes life saving ARVs to more than one million people living with HIV. These Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) efforts have seen a reduction of many deaths in the country (Eloff et al, 2005). In conclusion, HIV is an intricate endemic that causes massive challenges to the entire globe, national government, religious groups, families, individuals and even to the unborn children. It also poses a serious threat to future generation, which necessitates an action from every individual, as no one is immune to the disease. There are countless actions that have to be taken, which many governments have done; though differently due to resources constraints. Other measures need to be instituted at societal level in order to reduce discrimination for people living with aids. As such, resources should be used effectively to manage HIV, continuous research is required, support for people with HIV/AIDs, and policy makers have to incorporate the unique experience of people living with HIV/AIDs (Condon & Sinha, 2008). References: Anderson. G.R. (1999). 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