|
|
This is only a preview of the paper
Click here to register and get the full text.
Existing members click here to login
|
|
|
AIDS is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. ... In the United States, AIDS is the fifth leading cause of death among persons between ages 25 and 44. ... CAUSES Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes AIDS. AIDS is the final and most serious stage of the HIV disease. ... HIV has been found in saliva and tears in very low quantities from AIDS patients, but this does not necessarily mean it is transmitted by those body fluids. ... About a year later, the CDC linked the illness to blood and coins the term AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). ... Robert Gallo, confirmed that HIV was the cause of AIDS. Population based surveillance has been used to track the progression of the HIV epidemic from the initial case report of opportunistic illnesses caused by a then unknown agent to a few large cities to the reporting of 711,344 AIDS cases nationwide through June 30, 1999. Since 1985, many states have implemented HIV case reporting as part of their comprehensive HIV/AIDS surveillance programs. ... They have reported 42% of cumulative US AIDS cases. In 1996, national AIDS incidences and AIDS deaths declined for the first time during the HIV epidemic. These declines have been primarily due to the early use of combination antiretroviral therapy, which delays progression to AIDS and death for persons with HIV infection. SIGN, SYMPTOMS AND TEST Symptoms of AIDS are primarily the result of an infection that does not normally develop in a person with a healthy immune system. ... AIDS destroys the immune system and makes the infected person more susceptible to such infections. ... For people with HIV to have AIDS, their immune system must become severely damaged. ... If a person with HIV has a CD4 count less than 200 they are said to have AIDS. The following is a list of diseases that people with AIDS acquires when the CD4 decreases. ... CD4 below 100/ml: Crytococcal meningitis, AIDS Dementia, Wasting Syndrome. ... There are a few new tests for the AIDS virus; one is the Western Blot Test. ... The term AIDS applies to the most advanced stages of HIV infection. ... These infections are fatal in people with AIDS. Many people cannot hold steady employment or do household chores because of these symptoms of AIDS. ... Scientists are trying to determine what factors may account for their lack of progression to AIDS, such as particular characteristics of their immune systems or whether they were infected with less aggressive strain of the virus, or if their genes may protect them from the effects of HIV. ... There is still no cure for AIDS or HIV. ... Update: trends in AIDS incidence-United States, 1996. ... HIV/AIDS surveillance report, 1999; 11(no. ... com
AIDS, is known as, the acquired immune deficiency syndrome and is the disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). ... AIDS has become a worldwide epidemic that has struck every identifiable group. ... Individuals persist that AIDS is a gay disease and that if one is not gay, one is immune from it. ... Until a vaccine and/or a cure is discovered for AIDS, the numbers will increase and people will keep dying. The Slow Response To AIDS “The first cases of AIDS in the United States were reported in 1981” (Schaefer; p. ... Prior to that, AIDS was not recognized as an epidemic for many deluded years. ... Yet, the people decided to direct their attention to things they believed to have more importance than the catastrophe of AIDS, “. ... other diseases were far more important than AIDS” (Gellman; p. ... In regards to the conflict perspective view, the response to the AIDS epidemic is slow because policy makers originally believed that the virus was only relegated to those of the gay community and those of heavy drug users. However, as the years went by, the AIDS virus spread or, became visible, to the heterosexual community and all around the world. The reaction to this problem is still superficial in regards of those who do not want to acknowledge AIDS as a catastrophic crisis. “Those who are dying from AIDS don’t matter in this world” (Gellman; p. 3), in other words, people do not want to sympathize with those who have come into contact with the AIDS virus and those who suffer from it. ... So policy makers have debated whether or not to contribute a large portion of their time to facing the crisis of AIDS especially since the AIDS pandemic had many disadvantages. ... 11), basically, there is no cure for the AIDS virus. Not to mention, the costs of AIDS programs were high. ... It was simply a matter of the society’s priorities, and AIDS was not one of the United States’. ... Impact of the AIDS Epidemic on Social Interaction and Social Structure in the United States The impact of the AIDS epidemic on social interaction and social structure in the United States varies a great deal and a large portion of these varieties are due to their cultures. ... ‘family values’ agenda and alliance with Christian conservatives associates AIDS with deviance and sin. ... Thus people associated with religion may see AIDS as a condemnation of some sort. “AIDS is God’s punishment,” Reverend Jerry Falwal said in a famous 1983 sermon, “The Scripture is clear: We do reap it in our flesh when we violate the laws of God” (Gellman; p. ... Not to mention, the religious association with AIDS may also cause some discriminatory issues, since AIDS was founded in Africa in the 1920s. ... And Africa still, even to this day, has a problem with AIDS. ... Thus, AIDS cannot be solved as a “biomedical problem” (Gellman, p. ... “AIDS, by itself, is reversing decades of slow improvement in child survival, adult longevity, educational attainment and economic growth” (Gellman; p. ... The AIDS epidemic reduces the population growth rate of a society. In other words, this is to say that AIDS is infecting an awful lot of people in society today. Whether they are being infected with the virus or by the impact AIDS has on the social interaction and social structure in society, AIDS has proved to be an epidemic, both medically and of terror and/or ignorance. Why Social Policies Might Have the Best Chance of Reducing the AIDS Epidemic Social policies have a better chance of reducing the AIDS epidemic because AIDS is at long last being recognized as a social problem.
Approximate Word count = 5153
Approximate Pages = 20.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
|
|
|
|
|
|