Health education - Research Paper Example

The topic of HIV/AIDS is very broad, therefore, this research papers focuses on transmission of HIV/AIDS. In addition, the impacts of the problem in the society are highlighted and recommendations are given on how to mitigate the spread of the disease. According to Akinwumi (2001), the rate of HIV/AIDS infection is high among the poor and the rich as well as the educated and the illiterate. It is, therefore, critical to evaluate how the disease is transmitted from one individual to another. Transmission of HIV occurs when the virus from an infected person gets into the body of a healthy person.

This is through the semen, or injecting the virus into the body of a healthy individual. This means that there are numerous mechanisms through which the HIV virus can get into the body of a healthy individual as highlighted in the subsequent literature. In most instances, HIV is spread into a healthy person when the individual engages in unprotected sex with an infected partner. Though there are chances that the virus can be transmitted through oral sex, in most cases, the virus gets in the body of a healthy individual through the penis, vagina, vulva and through the mouth when the saliva has infected blood cells.

It is, therefore, important to note that HIV is principally transmitted from one individual to another through sexual intercourse. The HIV infection is also transmitted among the intravenous drug users who share the needles employed in injecting the drugs. This is because the contaminated blood is transmitted from one person to the others sharing the syringe, therefore, in case one of the members sharing the syringe is infected, then the virus will eventually be transmitted to the others too (Henderson, 1994).

The virus is also easily transmitted from the infected pregnant mothers to the children either during the