HIV/AIDS

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) HIV/AIDS affects 35.3 million people worldwide. Africa has a large population of people who suffer from HIV/AIDS. In Sub-Saharan Africa 1 in every 20 adults live with HIV (WHO, 2013). Populations that are more likely to come down with HIV/AIDS are people in low income and middle income communities. African Americans are the racial/ethnic group that is most affected by HIV in the United States (Center for Disease Control, 2013). HIV/AIDS can be transmitted from person to person via blood, bodily fluids, semen, mother to child transmission, sharing needles and unprotected sex (Donovan, 2013). After becoming infected with HIV/AIDS a person may not exhibit initial symptoms. Some people may get flu like symptoms that include fever, headache, sore throat, and rashes. People with weakened immune system is more vulnerable for developing HIV/AIDS when having unprotected sex, STD, unsafe injections, etc (WHO,2013).

      Source: World Health Organization. (2013). HIV/AIDS. Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/hiv/en/index.html

The image of Africa shows the estimated percentage of adults infected with HIV between the ages of fifteen to forty-nine years old in 2000.  The image shows that Zimbabwe and Botswana had the highest percentage of infected adults.

STIGMA

Stigmatization begins when the communities response to the person with HIV/AIDS causes the infected person to expect those reactions and anticipate them even when they do not happen. Stigmatization of people with HIV/AIDS have lead to people not wanting to be tested or reach out for treatment because of either denial, secrecy, shame and silence.

" The public response to HIV/AIDS affects how people view themselves...when people are marked as different, it means they are reduced in our minds from a whole and usual person to a tainted, disconnected one" (Duffy, 2005). 

 

 Source: Future trends in HIV/AIDS, 2002

VECTOR

The vector for the transmission of HIV/AIDS to humans began with chimpanzees that carried the virus. Humans hunted for animals to eat and some of the animals were believed to have been infected with HIV from the chimpanzees. 

INFECTIOUS DISEASE

HIV/AIDS is considered an infectious disease because it transmissible and spread from person to person through sexual intercouse. Infectious diseases can be asymptomatic and people who are infected with HIV/AIDS may not show initial symptoms.

DISEASE BURDEN

HIV/AIDS and Malaria accounted for a large proportion of disability in Sub-Saharan Arica than the world as a whole(The World Bank, 2013). The effects of HIV/AIDS on the African people have caused resources to be depleted. When men and women die from AIDS their family must earn income. Natural resources like trees, fishes and coal are being over harvested and resources are being depleted. Ex: increase in coffin production because of high death rates from AIDS has contributed to harvesting of some forests in South Africa. We see from this example that the HIV/AIDS disease does cause a high burden on the local economy (Thaxton, 2013).

DISCOURSE 

A. Ideas/Ideologies;

People with HIV/AIDS are contagious therefore families are broken apart by the misconception. Children with parents who had HIV/AIDS are not adopted by other family members because they are believed to be carriers of the disease.

B. Institutions;

AIDS Foundation of South Africa (First registered AIDS Non-Government Organization in South Africa) is working to provide “Our areas of focus includes Combination Prevention and Treatment, Child Protection and Wellbeing, Food Security and Income Generation, as well as Policy and Practice through the promotion of equality, education and access to basic services.” They are working towards creating interventions that will improve the health and well-being of the communities they are working with.

UNFPA, United Nations Population Fund is working towards getting universal access to sexual and reproductive health. In Africa they are trying to supply the demand for condoms to prevent the spread of HIV (UNFPA, 2013).

C. Text;

We can see in the image how that young teenagers in Namibia, Africa who are painting on a fence “Let’s fight AIDS! Not people with AIDS.” This is a form of text because it can be interpreted differently by many people and change the way people think about people who suffer from AIDS.

 

Source: Our African, Poverty and Healthcare 2013 http://www.our-africa.org/namibia/poverty-healthcare

D. Social practices that are involved in prevention measures for HIV/AIDS include increase awareness of the disease to the public as well as providing access to condoms.

GOVERNMENTALITY

    Technologies:Information used from technology can come from Census data, death records, infection records at a hospital.  

    Agencies: There are many health care agencies like the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control who are doing research/ studies in Africa to better understand the impact of the disease to the well being on the people. There are also agencies that take in children who have lost parents and family member to HIV/AIDS. There are agencies that help to get the orphan children adopted out to families who can take care of them.

   Institutions: Some examples of institutions that can be apart of the govermentality scale is government and  UNICEF.   For example, UNICEF is trying to give girls life skills that will help them prosper, believe to give education to all children and adolescents, and to provide health education and HIV/AIDS education  (UNICEF,2013).  

References:

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2013). HIV Among African Americans. Retrieved

           from: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/risk/racialethnic/aa/facts/index.html

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2013). HIV Basics. Retrieved

           from http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/index.html

World Health Organization. (2013). HIV/AIDS. Retrieved

            from: http://www.who.int/hiv/en/index.html

Donovan, C., (2013). Lecture.

Duffy, L., (2005). Suffering, shame and silence: the stigma of HIV/AIDS. Journal of Association of           Nurses in AIDS care. 16(1). 13-20. 

Sandlyn, J. (2000). When AIDS became a chronic disease. Western Journal of Medicine. 172(2): 130-133

Thaxton, M. (2013) The burden of Sub-Saharan Africa: AIDS, poverty and natural resource degradation. Retrieved from: http://www.grida.no/publications/et/ep4/page/2650.aspx

UNFPA, (2013). Preventing HIV AIDS. Retrieved from: http://www.unfpa.org/hiv/programming.htm

UNICEF, (2013). Girls, HIV/AIDS and education. Retrieved from:  http://www.unicef.org/lifeskills
/index_8657.html)

UNICEF. (2013). The global burden of disease: main findings for sub-saharan africa. Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/lifeskills/index_8657.html  

World Health Organization.(2013). Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/9/08-058321/en/