Hiv/Aids in Africa Essay

Nearly three decades ago, there was an increase in deaths of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. Developing countries have experienced the greatest HIV/AIDS morbidity and mortality, with the highest prevalence rates recorded in young adults in sub-Saharan Africa. In South Africa over three million people are killed by this disease (Macfarlene3). After this epidemic spreaded in Africa and killed people it branched out to other countries in the world.

The worst pandemic in human history took place between the 14th and the 19th century. However it would peak between the years of 1348 to 1350 It caused over 25 million deaths and reduced 1/3 of Europe’s population. It was even known to wipe out entire cities and even kill so many people that there was no one to even bury the bodies. This pandemic was known as the Black Plague. This plague was a huge part of history that would lead to the changes of religion, culture, economics, and politics. The black plague is known for causing a huge impact on Europe however that’s not where the disease originated from. (Haensch)

Human Immunodeficiency Virus is HIV that develops into AIDS, which is Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. This virus starts to break down white blood cells, as a result the immune system starts to deteriorate and our greatest shield cannot fight any longer (Mayo Clinic, 2016). The CDC (2015) states, that over 1.2 million people live with HIV in the United States and most who are infected are oblivious of their disease. Healthy people 2020 has declared HIV a public health crisis in the United States, and continues to sweep the nation with more than 500,000 new cases each year (HealthyPeople2020,2016).

Finally, another big problem caused by AIDS is orphans. There are eleven million orphans in Africa. “Health officials begun to refer to these parentless children as the Lost Generation…” (PBS, video). Many children in Africa are orphans as their parents were killed from the disease. The home life for these children is very different

Of the 35 million people living with HIV in the world, 19 million do not know their HIV-positive status. Adolescent girls and young women account for one in four new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa. Women are much more vulnerable to HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis B and C than the general public. Which is supported by this excerpt from a recent AIDSTAR-One regional report “Women and girls often face discrimination in terms of access to education, employment and healthcare. In this region, men often dominate sexual relationships. As a result, women cannot always practice safer sex even when they know the risks involved. Gender-based violence has been identified as a key driver of HIV transmission in the region.” (Ellsberg, Betron 2010) Many children are affected by the disease in a number of ways: they live with sick parents and relatives in households drained of resources due to the epidemic, and those who have lost parents are less likely to go to school or continue their education. Studies in the regions of Southern Africa and South-East Asia have found HIV/AIDS to negatively impact both the demand for and supply of education. Orphaned children are either pulled out of school or not enrolled at all due to the financial constraints of

In the 1980s, a mysterious disease began to take the lives of Americans. With the cause unknown, a fear grew among Americans. An unusually high rate of people was becoming sick with strange and rare diseases. When experimental treatments failed to work, people died. This mysterious disease is what we now know as HIV–Human Immunodeficiency Virus. In the past thirty-five years, the HIV has taken many turns in history. Although we do not hear about HIV and AIDS now, it is still a prevalent issue in the United States and in the world.

impoverishing the poor” (Avert). The impact that AIDs has on the income of a family is

HIV and AIDS have affected millions of people throughout the world. Since 1981, there have been 25 million deaths due to AIDS involving men, women, and children. Presently there are 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS around the world and two million die each year from AIDS related illnesses. The Center for Disease Control estimates that one-third of the one million Americans living with HIV are not aware that they have it. The earliest known case of HIV was in 1959. It was discovered in a blood sample from a man in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Looking further into the genetics of this blood sample researchers suggested that it had originated from a virus going back to the late 1940’s or early 1950’s. In 1999,

In 2009 an estimated 33.2 million human beings were unfortunate enough to be infected with AIDS or HIV. A hefty 22.4 million of those individuals live in where the story of humanity began, Sub-Saharan Africa. The good-fortuned United States on the other end of the spectrum ,is home to 1.2 million infected. The statistics for the amount of infected in the U.S. is almost negligible in comparison to those of Africa’s ,because of the obvious difference in amount of infected ,but also in the amount of power the disease has in the confines of each spatial variation. In the growing quest for equality amongst all humanity it is a necessity to understand why Africans are bearing the statistical load and why the number of infected grow in amongst

2.4 million people died of an AIDS-related illness in Africa, and since the beginning of

HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. A member of a group of viruses called retroviruses, HIV infects human cells and uses the energy and nutrients provided by those cells to grow and reproduce. AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is a disease in which the body's immune system breaks down and is unable to fight off certain infections, known as "opportunistic infections," and other illnesses that take advantage of a weakened immune system. When a person is infected with HIV, the virus enters the body and lives and multiplies primarily in the white blood cells. These are the immune cells that normally protect us from disease.

The human immunodeficiency infection (HIV) has claimed the lives of more than 35 million individuals since its emergence. In 2014, an estimated 3000 individuals in New Zealand was reported to be living with HIV. And, although HIV doesn 't discriminate, the brunt of this epidemic’s impact has disproportionately affected specific populaces.

The HIV virus poses one of the biggest viral threats to human society today. It

HIV is a virus that is spread almost all over the world. Although in some places health care isn’t as developed and therefore it spreads more in those regions. Sub-Saharan Africa holds more than 70%, 25 million, of all HIV positive people in the world. Second highest is Eastern Europe together with Central Asia with 1.3 million. It is spread over most of the world, including Asia and the Pacific, the Caribbean, Central and South America, North Africa and the Middle East and Western and Central Europe (“The Regional Picture”).

This disease has made people outcasts in our society because they have this disease that can kill or make someone ill for a long period of time which will adventually lead to death. Widdison and Delaney (1996) write, "It is convenient to characterize a social problem as a conflict of values and duties, a conflict of rights or social condition that leads to or is thought to lead to harmful consequences". (Page 10) Staying with the topic that over population and poverty combined causes social problems such as scarce jobs and resources for people but only that overpopulation is responsible for the conditions, which contribute to the overall lowering of the quality of life of human beings in society. Another problem is AIDS, which is both a population and social problem. People are sometimes not accepted because they have the AIDS virus. This also affects the poor people more than the wealthy because AIDS is more common among poor neighborhoods because they have less money to buy things such as condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS and other diseases. According to the Global AIDS Policy Commission "about 95 percent were spent in industrialized countries that have less than 25 percent of the world's population", 18 percent of the people with AIDS and 15 percent of HIV infections worldwide." (Tarantola and Mann, 1995 pages 123-124) According these numbers, a very large