Blog Post 4 "An End to AIDS within our reach"

A recent article in the Washington Post addresses the issue of HIV in the world. According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine antiretroviral treatment can prevent the spread of HIV as well as help those already infected prevent death and sickness. The article also said that the only obstacle that faces the world now are the funds to support this treatment however. It was reported in the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/ AIDS that funding had dropped in the last year toward to help with research. What the article’s standpoint is that we should help more in the funding so that everyone with the disease can get the help that they need. The article urges the importance of the US Presidents Plan for AIDS relief to invest more money to help more people. So far the plan has put 3.2 million people onto the treatment. Being that this article was opinion I did additional research to find out if this was an actual solution and were the facts presented in the article reliable. According to avert.com, antiretroviral treatment is not a CURE but is a treatment meaning that it can stop people from becoming ill for very long periods of time. HIV attacks the t-helper cells and a CD4 test is used to determine when people should start the treatment.  The CD4 test measures the number of T-helper cells and when the count is less than 350 cells people are then informed that they should take the treatment.  The treatments consists of a combination of antiretroviral drugs which vary due to the needs of different people. This treatment has people with HIV living longer and also prevents more people from contracting the disease.

                There are more than 33.3 million people infected with HIV and the number is steadily rising.  22.5 million of this global number come from Sub- Saharan Africa. These means that over half the people infected with this disease don’t have the money to begin getting treatment so in result all these people die and alarming rate. If there is a way that PEPFAR’s treatment funding could raise more money it will mean millions more lives being saved. Reduction of HIV could mean a domino affect for the world. With keeping more people alive instead of them falling victim to the epidemic, they could lead normal productive lives in which they work and have families. No longer will there be disease cause barriers on their lives.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/an-end-to-aids-is-within-our-reach/2011/09/18/gIQABAbGjK_story.html
http://www.avert.org/worldstats.htm
http://www.avert.org/antiretroviral.htm