Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - Essay Example

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) ______________________________________ Introduction Some changes are having a deep and long-lasting effect on the lives of millions, even on the whole world population and future generations. Then AIDS appeared on the world scene. The spread of AIDS, the deadly virus that has become one of the worst plagues of the 20th century. AIDS has already taken the lives of tens of thousands. And if current estimates prove correct, it could take millions of additional lives in the near future. As deaths from this modern plague mounted and no cure was found. The disease is defined as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), a human viral disease that ravages the immune system, undermining the body's ability to defend itself from infection and disease. Caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), AIDS leaves an infected person vulnerable to opportunistic infections. Such infections are harmless in healthy people, but in those whose immune systems have been greatly weakened, they can prove fatal. Physicians prefer to use the term AIDS for cases where a person has reached the final, life-threatening stage of HIV infection that leads to death. AIDS is made visible in media representations, its more than just money spent on AIDS, there exists a social, ethical, economic and religious effects. The epidemic has affected the society, touching all peoples of the world in some way. It has compelled individuals to make new judgments or reinforce many practices taking place in society. II. Prevalence Since the beginning of the epidemic in 1981, an estimated 11.7 million people have died of AIDS. It is estimated that in 1997 alone, about2.3 million people perished. Nevertheless, there are fresh reasons for optimism in the battle against AIDS. During the past few years, there has been a drop in new AIDS cases in wealthy nations. While cases of AIDS have been reported in every nation of the world, the disease affects some countries more than others. More than 95 percent of all HIV-infected people live in the developing world. In these areas, the disease has sapped the populations of young men and women who form the foundation of the labor force. Most die while in the peak of their reproductive years. Moreover, the epidemic has overwhelmed health-care systems, increased the number of orphans, and caused life expectancy rates to plummet. These problems have reached crisis proportions in some parts of the world already burdened by war, political upheaval, or unrelenting poverty. III. How Infection Spreads According to (Bartlett, 2000), "(1)you cannot catch AIDS as you would have a cold or the flu, (2)you cannot get it from sitting next to someone who has AIDS or by touching or hugging a person who is infected, (3)you cannot get it by eating food handled, prepared, or served by an infected person, and (4)you cannot get it by sharing toilets, telephones, clothes, or eating and drinking utensils, the virus is not transmitted by mosquitoes or any other insect." There are three ways that HIV infections spread: sexual intercourse with an infected person, contact with contaminated blood, and transmission from an infected mother to her child before or during birth or through breastfeeding. A Sex with an Infected Person AIDS transmission occurs most commonly during intimate sexual contact with an infected person, including genital, anal, and oral sex. The virus is present in the infected person's semen or vaginal fluids. During sexual intercourse, the virus gains access to the bloodstream of the uninfected person by passing through openings in the mucous membrane-the protective tissue layer that lines the mouth, vagina, and rectum-and through breaks in the skin of the penis. HIV is most commonly transmitted during sex between homosexual men, but the incidence of HIV transmission between heterosexual men and women has rapidly increased. In most other parts of the world, HIV is most commonly transmitted through heterosexual sex. According to Awake Magazine "In 1970 less than 5 percent of 15-year-old girls had experienced sexual intercourse. Nearly 1 out of 5 teenagers has experienced sex with more than four partners. More and more youths are engaging in premarital sex." The result An explosion of AIDS cases among these teenagers. B Contact with Infected Blood Others were infected by blood transfusions. According to Awake Magazine: "Dr.Thomas Peterman, a medical epidemiologist with the AIDS branch of the Centers for Disease Control ... estimated that 12,000 Americans became infected with HIV [AIDS virus] from contaminated blood transfusions from 1978-1984." Many of these blood recipients have died or are dying. The AIDS, awakened people to the danger of acquiring infectious diseases from blood. Millions are now infected. It is spreading out of control. And its death rate is virtually 100 percent. Health experts learned that the virus could probably be passed on in blood products. After a person is infected, it could be months before antibodies can be detect. People have developed AIDS after being transfused with such blood! Direct contact with HIV-infected blood occurs when people who use injected drugs share hypodermic needles or syringes contaminated with infected blood. Sharing of contaminated needles among intravenous drug users is the primary cause of HIV infection. Married people who have been infected with AIDS through blood transfusions can pass the disease on to their mates through sex relations. In one study of married men who got AIDS from blood transfusions, it was found that 14 percent of their wives also had the virus. In Africa, based on the magazine, it is reported that some 10 percent of all men and women who have the AIDS virus received it through infected blood from transfusions or the use of contaminated needles, such as in vaccinations C Mother-to-Child Transmission HIV can be transmitted from an infected mother to her baby while the baby is still in the woman's uterus or, more commonly, during childbirth. The virus can also be transmitted through the mother's breast milk during breastfeeding. Mother-to-child transmission accounts for 90 percent of all cases of AIDS in children. Mother-to-child transmission is particularly prevalent in Africa, where the number of women infected with HIV is ten times the rate found in other regions. According to (White, 1998), a specialist on breast-feeding and mother-to-child transmission of HIV, "health workers are advising HIV-positive women in industrialized countries not to breast-feed their babies, since this nearly doubles the risk of the baby's being infected.." One of the obstacles is a social one. In countries where breast-feeding is the norm, women who bottle-feed their babies may be advertising the fact that they have been infected with HIV. A woman may fear that she will be blamed, abandoned, or even beaten when her condition becomes known. Some women in this circumstance feel that they have no choice but to breast-feed their baby to keep their HIV-positive condition a secret. IV. SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES A. AIDS and Society The AIDS epidemic has changed modern society. Reaching all institutions like family, community, business, government and school. Although new and effective AIDS drugs have brought hope to many HIV-infected persons, a number of social and ethical dilemmas still confront public-health officials. However, some countries argued that drug firms had failed to deliver on their promises of less expensive drugs. According to Awake Magazine "The US government has been spending more than $1 billion annually on AIDS programs. " If were to judge the worth of our society by our response to the AIDS epidemic, some will find it many positives as well as many negatives. Volunteers who come forward to give themselves in time of crisis would be among the positives while on the negative side is the discrimination to AIDS patients, and the moral judgments of who they are. The epidemic has affected the way people live, where they work, how they interact with other people and how they receive health care. B. Economic Issues For the struggling economies of some developing nations, AIDS has brought yet another burden: AIDS tends to kill young adults in the prime of their lives-the primary breadwinners and caregivers in families. According to an article released by the United Nations in 1999, "AIDS has shortened the life expectancy in some African nations by an average of seven years. In Zimbabwe, life expectancy has dropped from 61 years in 1993 to 49 in 1999." Upwards of 11 million children have been orphaned by the AIDS epidemic. Those children who survive face a lack of income, a higher risk of malnutrition and disease, and the breakdown of family structure. In Africa, the disease has had a heavy impact on urban professionals those educated, skilled workers who play a critical role in the labor force of industries such as agriculture, education, transportation, and government. In addition, education is decreasing, and illiteracy is on the rise, since families have neither the money nor the time to send children to school and hundreds of teachers have died of AIDS. The decline in the skilled workforce has already damaged economic growth in Africa, and economists warn of disastrous consequences in the future. C. Social Stigma and Discrimination Misinformation about AIDS and how it is transmitted triggered widespread fear of contracting the disease. Some communities responds to it that resulted in violence. In the United States in 1987, a Florida family with three positive sons who had become infected from blood transfusions were driven from their home when it was torched by an arsonist. In other communities, parents protested when HIV-infected children attended school. In many areas of the world, women in particular may face consequences if their HIV status is discovered. Reports indicate that many HIV-infected women are subject to domestic violence at the hands of their husbands-even if the husbands themselves are the source of infection. As a result, some women in developing nations fear being tested for HIV infection and cut themselves off from medical care and counseling. In addition to social stigma, HIV-infected persons must grapple with more immediate concerns their daily struggle for basic medical care and other basic rights in the face of discrimination and fear because of their HIV status. In China, for example, the number of HIV-positive individuals is a comparatively small problem so far. Yet nurses and other medical personnel who fear infection commonly refuse to perform procedures on HIV-infected people. This sort of discrimination against HIV-infected individuals has long been a problem. Perhaps the most insidious effect of AIDS is upon the sufferer's emotions. According to a doctor's observation, "The major problem with AIDS isn't so much in the virus itself, but in the ways its presence can create fears, doubts and disruptions in day-to-day living. Said one victim: "It's very difficult to describe the feelings of anger, guilt, and loss of control that you have when you have AIDS. It's something that I believe only a fellow victim could share and understand." The emotional turmoil prolongs the cycle of suffering. The social, ethical, and economic effects of the AIDS epidemic are still being played out, and no one is entirely certain what the consequences will be. Despite the many grim facts of the AIDS epidemic, however, humanity is armed with proven, effective weapons against the disease: knowledge, education, prevention, and the ever-growing store of information about the virus's actions. V. CONCLUSION Almost everyone went to church and religion had a strong influence on every level of society. Religion plays a vital role so that each individual must make a choice, the choice to continue immoral relationships or illegal drug use, then one must face the consequences: the reaping of harm for the sowing of moral wrong. The Bible plainly states: "God is not one to be mocked. For whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap; because he who is sowing with a view to his flesh will reap corruption from his flesh."-Galatians 6:7,8. Consider how many have died and will yet die from AIDS because of immoral sexual activity and drugs, as well as the thousands (in Africa possibly hundreds of thousands) from contaminated blood. Consider, too, the hundreds of millions whose health is being damaged by other sexually transmitted diseases, as well as by other complications of blood transfusions and by drug abuse. Having a healthy way of life, purity of relations will surely save lives. The Bible, look forward to a complete and permanent solution to AIDS and all the other problems plaguing mankind. Soon, God's Kingdom will take over the administration of earth's affairs. In the new world of righteousness, poverty and oppression will be things of the past. Instead, earth's inhabitants will be restored to perfect health, and none of them will ever say: "I am sick."-Isaiah 33:24. References: Bartlett, G. 2000. Understanding Aids. Aids and Society. P.10 White, M. 1998. Watching the World. How to Avoid AIDS. P.6-12 Read More