Aids in New York City - Essay Example

 Acquired immune deficiency syndrome is a disease that affects the human immune system. Once one acquiring this syndrome, he or she becomes more susceptible to infection like tuberculosis and many other opportunistic infections not leaving behind tumors. Therefore, the whole stature of the body’s defense against infections is highly affected leaving a human body that cannot prevent infections. However, with the advent of antiretroviral therapy, there have been great strides made towards ensuring that people live a normal live devoid of opportunistic infections. New York City make is among the largest cities in the United States with representation of different kinds of people. The population of New York City is made up of people who differ in different ways in terms of their race, sexual orientation, level of education and age. According to Reilly et al., (2014), people in their diversity are affected differently with this epidemic in New York City. The different effect the diseases have on different races is attributed to the different behavioral practices of these people. Since the disease was diagnosed, in New York City alone, over one hundred thousand people have died from the disease since the year 1981. As of February 2014, there were 110,736 new Yorkers who had been diagnosed with aids and presumed to be living with this infection (Reilly et al., 2014). In the year 2013 3481, new diagnoses of these diseases were made of these: 76.6 percent of the people were men with 23.4 percent being women. 48.3 percent is made up of men who have sex with men, while the heterosexuals were made up of 21.4 percent (Reilly et al., 2014). Hispanic and blacks made the larger population of people affected with aids with a percentage of 78.6 percent. Lastly, 35.1 percent of the new infections were comprised of people who are under the age of 29. 1.4 percent of new Yorkers live with aids, with the Spanish and black Americans being the most affect since they represent about 78 percent of this population. Young people rate of infection follows closely at 35.1 percent. This percentage is quite high now that these young people are more active and likely to spread the disease more than when it affected older people (Reilly et al., 2014). Solutions Aids is a thorn that has to be dealt with accordingly in order to mitigate its effects on the disease burden and various sectors of the New York City. Its effects are far felt in all areas that work towards maintaining the great economy of the city. There are various solutions available to mitigate the prevalence and effect of aids today. First, emphasis should be laid on ensuring that the numbers of new infections each year are reduced. Sex being the major contributor to the number of new infections; people have to be educated on safe hence reducing the risk of transmission. For instance, the number of new infections is majorly men who have sex with men. It is presumed that this person rarely use protection while having sex. Therefore, the first instance is educating people on safe sex practices (Hanna et al., 2007). Secondly, this disease has also affected the young people; the effect is attributed to the fact that they indulge in drugs and substance abuse, which cause the high number of infections. Thus to deal with this issue among the youths, the government has to put in place stringent rules on use of drugs among the young people and also initiate campaigns on safe sex through the department of health using various media. For those who are already affected and infected with the disease already, the government has to put in place centers that are entirely dedicated to serving this person. At the centers, all services ranging from counseling to a comprehensive care clinic that will monitor the progress of these patients should be provided. In fact, this will increase the level of compliance to the antiretroviral therapy treatment and professional care which will include counseling services (Sackoff, Hanna, Pfeiffer, & Torian, 2006). The approach to combating the effect of these diseases requires many expenses to start and maintain. For instance preventive measures need the health sector to incur costs in terms of advertising and employing people to take the message to the affected people. At the same time to maintain the people who have already been infected and affected, there are large costs involved in setting up structures for dealing with these cases so that to alleviate the stigma and increase compliance. The provision of condoms to people who are sexually active is another cost that the sector has to incur in order to change the pattern of infections. Concisely, there is no option, but to combat the level of new infections and maintain the health of those who are already infected. Failure to do so, the increase in the level of infections is likely to cause chaos in almost all departments (Hahm, Lee, Rough, & Strathdee, 2012). There will be increased disease burden and reduced productivity of the affected individuals, which will affect the economy of the city at the end. Therefore, timely measures to combat these diseases are poised at saving the city from such a scenario. References Hahm, H. C., Lee, J., Rough, K., & Strathdee, S. A. (2012). Gender power control, sexual experiences, safer sex practices, and potential HIV risk behaviors among young Asian-American women. AIDS and Behavior, 16, 179–188. doi:10.1007/s10461-011-9885-2 Hanna, D. B., Gupta, L. S., Jones, L. E., Thompson, D. M., Kellerman, S. E., & Sackoff, J. E. (2007). AIDS-defining opportunistic illnesses in the HAART era in New York City. AIDS Care, 19, 264–272. doi:10.1080/09540120600834729 Reilly, K. H., Neaigus, A., Jenness, S. M., Wendel, T., Hagan, H., Marshall, D. M., … Koblin, B. a. (2014). Trends in HIV prevalence and risk behavior among men who have sex with men in New York City, 2004-2011. AIDS Education and Prevention : Official Publication of the International Society for AIDS Education, 26, 134–43. doi:10.1521/aeap.2014.26.2.134 Sackoff, J. E., Hanna, D. B., Pfeiffer, M. B., & Torian, L. V. (2006). Causes of death among persons with AIDS in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy: New York City. Annals of Internal Medicine, 145, 397–406. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16983127  Read More