The AIDS Pandemia - Essay Example

"The AIDS Pandemia" is an astonishing example of a paper on the virus.
Consider global ethical issues and the AIDS pandemic, its lethality, and rates of infection in Africa or other third-world countries and therapy that exist. Specifically, address:

(a) What controversy exists concerning clinical drug trials?

(b) What obligation do the United Nations and the United States have in providing treatment to third-world countries?

AIDS is among the top ten leading causes of death from infectious diseases worldwide. Since its earliest identification in North America and Central Africa during the early 1980s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has spread globally affecting a large number of people (Klein, 1999). It is widely believed that HIV first originated in Africa and gradually contributed to the development and spread of the disease to other regions of the world. Due to rapid urbanization, prostitution sprung up as more people moved to cities even triggering the transmission of the virus. Estimates reveal that around 24 million Africans have already been infected by the virus. As no cure is yet discovered, probably none of them will survive after 2010. In Africa, around 6000 people die and an additional 11,000 are infected from AIDS every day (Shah, 2009). Besides Africa, AIDS is also one of the leading causes of death in developing countries. AIDS is undoubtedly one of the major global concerns which require immediate medical attention, but research has often raised various ethical issues such as informed consent.

Acquiring informed consent of participants is a fundamental requirement for conducting ethical research. However, most of the people in the developing world are plagued by poverty, illiteracy, and have little or no access to basic health facilities. People in such conditions are unable to give valid informed consent. As AIDS has become a pandemic, it attracts a large number of researchers to find possible treatment options for the disease. About 1.8 million

people died due to AIDS in 2010 alone (avert.org). One of the most controversial events regarding ethical concerns about informed consent occurred in a developing country, Thailand. In 1994, placebo-controlled trials were held in Thailand to see the effectiveness of zidovudine in reducing the transmission of HIV from infected mothers to their infants by 51%. The participant pregnant women in placebo trials were not provided with detailed information or informed about the full benefits and consequences of the placebo trials but instead were left untreated until the 36th week of gestation when they were randomly assigned to the zidovudine or placebo group (Schuklenk, 1998). This was a coercive effort to force terminally ill pregnant women to join a clinical trial whose pros and cons were not well known to participants and they were even left untreated for a long duration. This incident was in a total contradiction with the principles of informed consent in which the participant should be properly informed about the benefits and the consequences. This study reveals that how a very important ethical consideration such as informed consent was neglected in a developing country. Developed nations should allow and encourage developing nations to benefit from their resources as drugs are unaffordable for most of the people in developing countries where there are more patients.

The AIDS pandemic is a serious global issue as it is threatening lives all over the world. Therefore, it is the U.S obligation to take preventive measures and help scientists in finding a cure for the disease. A little bit of sacrifice by economic powers can mitigate the suffering of millions of people in the third world. UN and the countries with sufficient means, resources, and capabilities have a moral and ethical obligation of providing sustainable solutions to the HIV/AIDS crisis prevalent in the developing world.