Public Health in Preventing Spread of HIV-AID - Essay Example

Public Health measures in Preventing Spread of HIV/AID in Australia Student’s name: Course/number: Instructor’s name: Date: There is no specific approach or program that is deemed fit and effective on its own in preventing HIV/AIDs infection. All programs must be coordinated and controlled in ensuring that any given state or country is able to control the spread of AIDs. The programs must be designed and evaluated to ensure that they fit the local condition of the country are the state that is involved. Majority of the countries have not managed to fully establish this programs and they still have a long way to go. Nevertheless, Australia has managed to establish and implement some of the public health programs have in turn significantly prevented the spread of the HIV infection. Australia is the country that has managed to maintain the level of HIV infection at a fairly low level. This is possible because of the swift measure implemented in controlling the spread of the disease as soon as it was discovered. ("HIV/AIDS Research and Surveillance - Public Health Agency of Canada.") This made it possible to control the numbers that had risen significantly during the early period of the discovery of the diseases. The federal government in Australia has established a serious harm reduction process by ensuring that it provides enough funds required in the prevention process and programs involved. One of the public health programs that have been facilitated by the funding is the Needle and Syringe programs (NSPs). (Pankonin, Higgs, Reid, and Aitke, 2008) This is a harm reduction program that enables the patients and used of injecting drugs to obtain the injections and other complementary equipments at a fairly low cost price. Further measures are instilled in this program to ensure that no mistake is made, hence the service users are required to return the exact amount of used equipment before they can receive new ones. Therefore, the possibility of acquiring HIV/AIDS based on sharing of sharp objects is eliminated. The injections and syringes used are carefully sterilized before they can be reused again if need be. The temptation that might arise for the service providers to reuse the syringes or injections is eliminated by their significantly low task or none at all. The federal funding is provided to a wide range of health centers and outlets including chemist, hospitals, and other treatment centers. The funds enable these centers to ensure that they provide low cost clean and numerous needles all year long. Statistics have shown that this program together with others have managed to prevent around 25, 000 HIV infections. (Morris, Bailey, Klausner et al, 2012) Australia has also managed to establish strong peer outreach programmes to the risk groups. The peer outreach program encourages open communication about HIV/AIDS and activities that end up putting individuals at risk of infection. Similarly, they work in avoiding discrimination and stigma. This program is effective because it has managed to involve the community. The people that might fall victims are given the opportunity to come up wih and implement the program. This is of advantage because the program is tailored to easily meat the community needs at the individual level. It is not based on any condemnation for any social behaviour such as sexual relation or drug abuse, but instead it gives the victims to these social behaviors the freedom to carry them out but in a safer manner. The disclosure public health laws in Australia have also been very effective in managing the spread of HIV/AIDs. By the Tasmania law, one might be convicted based on a public health offence for not disclosing their HIV/AIDs status. This is regardless of taking any prevention measure during their sexual encounter. Basing on the fact that there was no disclosure of their health status they have the ability to face conviction. Tasmania law specifically mandates that one needs to disclosure their HIV status before any sexual encounter. This eradicates the possibility of transmission of this disease. In some places like in New South Wales the prevention precaution can be used as a defense mechanism to the conviction but in other places even the disclosure cannot act as one. Therefore people are required to take stern measures to make sure that no person is at risk of being infected. There is no any criminal law however that is attached to lack of disclosure of one’s status. Nevertheless, it has been considered an important factor in convicting people for any transmission. Hence there is no prosecution that can be made for an individual that failed to give their status but used a precaution like condoms to prevent the transmission. This is the reason why practitioners have been called fort to establish evidence that can be used in establishing the awareness of their patients ("Safe Behaviours and Disclosure.") Transmissions that arise from mother to child have also been fought over the years. A great percentage of infection in children is acquired through the mother. Hence to eradicate this infection, Australia has established measures to ensure that the transmissions that arise through infected mothers to children in avoided. If the Infection in the young children is eradicated it is certain that the other programs can work in creating and HIV/AIDs free nation. The support of treatment guidelines in this area include prenatal and periantal testing of HIV, antiretroviral treatment, avoidance of breastfeeding and scheduled cesarean delivery. In addition, to mothers that are pregnant and those that are planning to become mothers, ART should be initiated. This will prevent the HIV/AID infected mothers from transmitting the diseases to their children and in addition they are able to reduce the number of children that are infected with the disease in the country. However, for all the programs involved in the prevention and control to be effective, they must receive support from every individual. This call forth for strong leadership in caring out HIV prevention campaigns, implementing and effectively managing the public health prevention programs in order to attain sustained impact. Therefore both the religious leaders and the political in Australia have coordinated their efforts and authority to establish better response. If the entire coordinate establish this same commitment, them it could be possible to completely eliminate the spread of this disease that has greatly affect the human race. It is very important that risk groups are identified in order to enhance the prevention of HIV/AIDS and be able to reach them for further investigations and ensuring that they adhere to the required level of realizing several strategies to stop more spread of the viral. From the studies conducted in most parts of Australia, it was noted with great concern that gay community has the greatest rise level of infection since more active men are responsible for the spread of the viruses due to the behavior they pose in all the aspects of life. They entirely rely on various activities which tend to increase how the viruses are transmitted from one human to another. As a result the homosexual behavior needs to be abolished at all cost so that the menace may be reduced to a manageable status. ("Australia HIV & AIDS Statistics | AVERT.") category homosexual heterosexual Percentage 66% 34% Sex workers are also other folks who are adversely affected by the pandemic. They entirely sell their bodies with the exchange of money. This may be caused by poverty or many opt for cheap means of acquiring wealth. Due to lack of education on the moral behaviors such people end up being infected by the virus from their clients. The state should ensure that sex education is provided in order to enable them take preventive measures in situations of high risk of contracting the viral infections. Other individuals may also have the tendency of injecting themselves with drugs which contains substances that make the body not to function in the required manner. (Dolan, and Niven, 2005) The injecting tools can also be distributed among persons who may be unaware of their HIV/AIDS status and this can lead to the spread of the virus. also folks may share tools due to the In addition, human beings tend not to function well under the influence of drugs and this can contribute to one getting the viruses at a faster rate hence the pandemic which may make the body to be weak and normal functioning affected. Such intravenous drug users need to be taken in rehabilitation centers so that they can be taught on several techniques that can make them stay a positive life despite of their health status. In addition those people in custodial settings and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders have also the high risk of accessing to the AIDS viruses. This people are at high risk due to high STI prevalence in the communities they live, larger number of in custodial set ups and they also have limited access to the health care which is very vital to all folks. One should be able to know that the individual healthy is more important and lack of such medical care puts one at high level of contracting the viruses. After the government has identified these groups they are able to establish measures that are relevant and effective. This makes it easier to reach all individuals at the personal level and in addition implement programs that are relevant based on the local needs. This is the reasons why there has been a decline in the number of persons with HIV over the years. What better means is available is to deal with this epidemic that instills prevention measures? . Works Cited "Australia HIV & AIDS Statistics | AVERT." HIV and AIDS information and resources | AVERT. Web. 20 May 2014. Dolan, Kate A., and Heather Niven. "A review of HIV prevention among young injecting drug users: A guide for researchers." Harm Reduction Journal (2005). "HIV/AIDS Research and Surveillance - Public Health Agency of Canada." Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) | Agence de la sante publique du Canada (ASPC). 6 July 2012. Web. 20 May 2014. Morris, Brian J., Robert C. Bailey, Jeffrey D. Klausner, Arleen Leibowitz, Richard G. Wamai, Jake H. Waskett, Joya Banerjee, Daniel T. Halperin, Laurie Zoloth, Helen A. Weiss, and Catherine A. Hankins. "Review: A critical evaluation of arguments opposing male circumcision for HIV prevention in developed countries." Aids Care-psychological and Socio-medical Aspects of Aids/hiv (2012). Pankonin, Christopher A., Peter Higgs, Gary Reid, and Campbell Aitken. "Selling syringes to injecting drug users: a study of five pharmacies in Hanoi, Vietnam." The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries (2008). "Safe Behaviours and Disclosure." Guide to Australian HIV Laws and Policies for Healthcare Professionals. Web. 20 May 2014. Read More