Thursday, November 07, 2013

HIV/AIDS Epidemic

The blog topic I chose to talk about today is HIV/AIDS, because this is a social problem. The reason it is classified as a social problem is because it affects the places it is concentrated in many ways, which can in turn affect the world. HIV/AIDS stunts the growth of a population, which causes people to have more children, so one survives long enough to take care of his/her parents. However, the problem is the life expectancy of people who live in places like South Africa don't live past 54, so we have no productive members in society to work and produce goods. The disease cripples the concentrated areas because it brings birth rates up, death rates are high and the life expectancy low. The population is suffering because there is a lack of productive members, which can cause an endless cycle of poverty.

The article I chose talks about how the HIV/AIDS epidemic could be getting worse and harder to combat because attitudes are not changing, and groups like sex workers, drug users and gay men in these areas are not taking preventative measures.  There are many problems with trying to reach people and get them help because of location and funding.  The way we look at this disease needs to change, people look at people who contract the disease as criminals and delinquents, but there are many innocent people intertwined in this, such as those who have been raped, and children of these victims.


HIV/AIDS infected 35.3 million people worldwide, and eventually they get AIDS, although the prevalence of AIDS may seem to be rising, we have found better ways to test it which result in a reduction of HIV/AIDS in the recent years. However, the problem is not as easily fixed by creating medicines to combat HIV/AIDS and distributing, but educating the groups that are affected by this disease.  The groups include, drugs users sharing needles, prostitutes and sex workers as well as gay and bisexual men. These people are often marginalized have no access to health care and can be discriminated and criminalized which keeps them from getting help.  The real solution to HIV/AIDS is education and outreach programs, access to contraceptives and good health care to keep people living longer to live full and healthy lives. 

Emily Vestrat 
11/7/2013 
10:21 AM


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