Advanced Public Health Challenges - Case Study Example

Public Health challenges Public Health challenges Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 HIV/AIDS public health challenge 4 Transmission of HIV/AIDS 4 Sexual transmission 4 Body fluids contact 5 Socio-cultural issues to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and methods of prevention 5 View of literature related to HIV 6 Epidemiology and Prevention 6 Treatment and prognosis 6 Society and International Public Health 7 Magnitude of HIV in UAE 8 Magnitude of HIV/AIDS in Middle East. 8 Magnitude of the Problem Global Wise 9 HIV stigma 9 Conclusion and recommendations 10 HIV prevention recommendations 10 References 11 Introduction Public health challenges have advanced from being of local, national and global to the global level. These challenges have also moved out of the public health specialists and have become some of the major challenges in the present society including being political (Brower & Chalk, 2003). Public health challenges are substantially linked to the environments improvement and development and they are essential components of the national, regional and global security. Throughout history, people saw diseases that existed in other places of the world as barriers to adventure and a major factor in winning any major war (Boulé, 2002). During the time of Crimean war, diseases like cholera killed more times than the actual conflict that was taking place. Presently, the phenomenon of globalization has connected the entire world and it has left very few things and situations to be unknown to us. At this era of interconnectivity and the inter-dependent world continues, disease vectors like bacteria and viruses travel at speeds similar to those of e-mail messages and money flows (Brower & Chalk, 2003). Presently, there are no health sanctuaries, and at the same time, there are no impregnable walls that are built between the healthy world and the sick world, a wall that separates the impoverished with the malnourished (Dawson & Morris, 2009). The phenomenon of globalization has ultimately reduced the worlds distance, broken down the old world barriers and the relationship between linked people. In addition, the issue of globalization has made all the problems half the world to be for every person making health challenges to be global and to affect every person (Boulé, 2002). Nowadays, the cure for the diseases that attacked the soldiers, explorers and colonialists has been found and several methods of preventing and curing them have been devised. For example, the methods of treating and preventing malaria have been devised, treatment from diseases like TB has been found too. The only problem that seems to bother the world presently is the issue of HIV/ AIDS and it is what this paper will focus on as a major public health challenge (Brower & Chalk, 2003). HIV/AIDS public health challenge Several years back, HIV/AIDS was seen by most of the people as a ghost that was imperceptible on the horizon. HIV was seen as a disease that only affected some particular people and especially the minority group that composed of the gay community and the serious drug users and addicts. After some time, the world continued to realize that HIV/AIDS did not discriminate on whom to infect as long as there was a right vector, then the virus could infect any person irrespective of their gender, age and profession (Dawson & Morris, 2009). Transmission of HIV/AIDS HIV/AIDS is transmitted from one person to the other through three main ways. The three methods are sex, getting into contact with infected body fluids and tissues and lastly, to the child from the mother in delivery, pregnancy or breastfeeding periods. Sexual transmission Having unprotected sex with an infected person is one of the easiest ways of acquiring the deadly HIV. The transmission risk from feminine to male gender is always lower than that of male to female. The risk of transmission resulting from anal intercourse is usually higher than vaginal sex. The risk of transmission through oral sex is very low compared to that of anal and regular sex. Additionally, the risk of transmission tends to increase in the presence of many sexually transmitted (Dawson & Morris, 2009). Those with sexually transmitted diseases are at high risks of being infected together with those who take part in the production of pornography videos and commercial sex workers. Body fluids contact The second largest means of transmission after sex is getting into contact a fluid of an infected person and most coming into contact with the blood of an infected person. Body fluids come into contact during times of accident, blood transfusion, exchange of injecting needle among other ways (Dawson & Morris, 2009). The risk of being infected at the time of blood transfusion if it happens by mistake that the blood in exchange is infected is about 99%. Tattooing, ear piercing and scarification are also some of the primary means by which the HIV virus gets transmission. Insect bites, however, do not necessarily lead to the transmission of the virus (Fordham, 2014). Mother-to-child The virus has a different transmission mode from mother to child during pregnancy, delivery and during breastfeeding. With appropriate medical care, the risk of transmission from mother to child can be reduced by an approximated 1%. The infected mother may take antiretroviral as a protective measure to prevent the unborn baby from being infected (Fordham, 2014). Socio-cultural issues to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and methods of prevention Culture can be defined as a complicated compilation of unique spiritual, material, emotional and intellectual elements that tend to define a given community. Culture tends to present some norms and practices that directly or indirectly relates to sexuality. These factors tend to contribute a certain percentage the risk of HIV/AIDS infections in the society. Like for an example, there might be some elements of negativity in the use of condoms in the society that may result from different values and beliefs that exist in that particular society (Fordham, 2014). The outstanding safe prevention method for the spread of the virus is through abstinence. Other methods include the use of condoms and sticking to only one sex partner. An example is that of South Africans who do not like using condoms for a common belief that unprotected sex is usually health for men. Again, some sexual practices such as dry sex and unprotected sex all increase the risk of being infected with the virus because they actually cause abrasions to the linings of the vagina and the anus (Greifinger, Bick & Goldenson, 2007). View of literature related to HIV The issue and study of HIV creates a great volume of scientific literature every year. There are approximately 12,230 papers about HIV that have been developed in the period of September 2007 to August 2008. These articles have covered the issues of epidemiology, prevention, treatment, prognosis, basic science and social sciences (Greifinger, Bick & Goldenson, 2007). Epidemiology and Prevention The greatest issue in the world being talked about presently is about the extent of which HIV has spread all over the world (Greifinger, Bick & Goldenson, 2007). The available data suggests that, the pandemic seems to be stabilizing with around a population of 33 million people living with the virus although this is not the real case on the ground to third world countries. The rate to which the epidemic is spreading therefore calls for an urgent need for the development of the vaccine. Although, there have been reported cases of failure for about three thousand strong STEP trial of an HIV vaccine that has catalyzed the research agenda (Healey, 2011). Treatment and prognosis The earlier use of antiretroviral has seen to have the potential of being beneficial based on the current understanding of HIV pathogenesis. Even though, the reimbursement that might result from the use of the drugs need to be measured considering the issues of cost of the medication, the selection of resistant viruses and cure toxicity (Healey, 2011). There have been assessments determining whether the currently recommended threshold initiation would completely lead to excess cases of morbidity and mortality related to AIDS and others that are not related to AIDS in any way (Ruggiero, 2007). Earlier use of the ART drugs would have hypothetical reimbursement in epidemiology. Some scholars used some data from Columbia to model the hypothetical impacts of different thresholds for treatment initiation, and the extent to which the infected persons were distributed all over the world and how the distributions will be in the years to come (Ruggiero, 2007). The model was made based on the different scenarios some of the assumptions regarding the resistance of the drugs, adherence of the patients to ART drugs, and the guidelines given by the doctors (Fordham, 2014). Other factors like the degree to which the ART covers and the timing of the ART uptake factored in the studies. The model significantly supported the interest to catalyze the rolling out of the ART drugs while targeting medically needy, in both personal benefits and as a means of decreasing new infections (Healey, 2011). Society and International Public Health In several instances, the research carried out tries to identify the issues that relate to HIV and reflect on how they vary from one society to the other due to the variations in the economic resources or even in public health priorities and views (Fordham, 2014). In developed countries, health practitioners tend to prescribe from the full range of the ARTs drugs available that is continuously supported by testing of the resistance to the drugs and frequent laboratory monitoring. In S. Africa, for example, the infected patients tend to start with one of the four regimens, which were consequently changed to about 222 percent of the total patients (Greifinger, Bick & Goldenson, 2007). In the country of Switzerland, a total of 36 first-line regimens were used at the start, and they were changed in a percentage of 53 of all the patients. In comparison to the highly personalized approach in Switzerland, programmatic antiretroviral drugs in S. Africa ended up resulting in the same outcomes (Healey, 2011). Magnitude of HIV in UAE By the end of the year 2006, the official figures showed that the number of people living with HIV/AID in the UAE was at 540 people with an approximated number of 35 cases being recorded annually. The national HIV/AIDS-prevention strategy in the UAE is in its early development strategies. The administration of the United Arab Emirates has gone ahead and imposed HIV/AIDS travel ban to the people applying for work or residence Visa. An HIV test is required for any person to be permitted to work in the UAE (Fordham, 2014). Statistics of screened people in UAE Population tested Tested population Percentage tests HIV Positive cases Percentage of total cases Blood donors 66,398 3.7 2 0.7 Patients with TB 80 0.0005 3 1 Pregnant mothers 67,198 3.7 - - Pre marital cases 33,041 1.8 3 1 Others 1,633,899 90.7 292 97.3 Total population 1,800,616 100 300 100 Table 1. Magnitude of HIV/AIDS in Middle East. The results conducted over the past ten years (2001-2010) indicated use of media in prevention efforts. Despite the infection being a global problem, media has brought some light on causes and prevention. In the year 2007, the countries in Middle East made decision on how to prevent the infectious disease. The Middle East countries have banned sexual relationships outside marriages. The decision has led to great reduction of the disease even though it has negative consequences(Fordham, 2014). Magnitude of the Problem Global Wise 35 million people in the world are living with HIV/AIDS. Among them, 3.2 million are children(Fordham, 2014). Number of HIV/AIDS victims (Both adults and children) Area 1. North America and Western Central Europe 2.3 million 2. Eastern Europe and Central Asia 1.1 million 3. Middle East and North Africa 0.23 million 4. Asia and Pacific 4.8 million 5. Sub-Saharan Africa 24.7 million 6. Latin America 1.6 million HIV stigma Stigma related to HIV can be defined as prejudice, negative attitude and the abuse that is directed to the people infected and living with HIV/AIDS. The consequences of stigma to people living with HIV/AIDS ranges from being shunned away by his or her family and friends, being denied basic human rights, psychological damage and facing poor treatment in the healthcare and education settings (Healey, 2011).. Most of the population that is faced with stigma is made up of homosexuals, injecting drug users and sex workers. These groups face a lot of stigma because people always disapprove their way of living in the society. Stigma and discrimination act as the main reason as to why a lot of people are reluctant in getting HIV tests, disclosing their HIV status and even taking ARV drugs. Stigma related to HIV-aids exists all over the world although they show themselves in different ways across different countries, communities, individuals and religious groups (Greifinger, Bick & Goldenson, 2007). Conclusion and recommendations To conclude, the issue of HIV is one of the most pressing issues in the world today and it has challenged health practitioners all over the world. HIV needs to be handled with a lot of seriousness in order to come up with a lasting solution to the problem. People should always take care and prevent from engaging in practices that may increase the probability of being infected by the virus. World health organizations should all come together and work towards reducing the effects of the virus to the society. HIV prevention recommendations The common recommendation for adults and young adults should be to go for screening of the virus and be advised on what to do if they are found to be positive. HIV and AIDS education should be made part of the curriculum in all levels of education so that people are educated on how prevent themselves from the deadly virus. Pregnant mothers must be tested and advised on how to take care of their unborn babies if they are infected. References HIV stories. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Brower, J., & Chalk, P. (2003). The global threat of new and reemerging infectious diseases. Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand. Dawson, S., & Morris, Z. (2009). Future public health. Basingstoke [England]: Palgrave Macmillan. Fordham, G. (2014). HIV. Taylor and Francis. Greifinger, R., Bick, J., & Goldenson, J. (2007). Public health behind bars. New York: Springer. Healey, J. (2011). HIV and AIDS. Thirroul, N.S.W.: Spinney Press. Ruggiero, A. (2007). Public health. 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