College of Western Idaho
Combating AIDS Around the World
Veronica Keith
0100743
English 0W11
Leslie Jewkes
May 2, 2013
ABSTRACT
In
the United States everyone knows about how terrible of a disease Cancer is.
While it is truly terrible, there is another terrible disease that is seeking
our help also. AIDS, like cancer does not have a known cure. There are so many
people that do not know how AIDS is contracted or what to expect if one
contract AIDS. Thankfully here in the U.S we have hospitals and doctors
available to us if we need them. Third world countries do not have that luxury.
People living in third world countries who have AIDS are suffering from pain
and sickness and most may not even be aware as to what causes their pain. Helping
bring knowledge and medical care to third world countries is a huge step in winning
the fight against AIDS.
Combating AIDS Around the World
Totaling more than 33%, the country
of Swaziland has the largest number of people living with AIDS around the world
(Copson).While, that number is less than half of the population of Swaziland,
it is still an outrageous percentage of their population. Researchers and
scientists believe that AIDS has potentially been around for 32,000 years,
believing that chimpanzees were the first primates to contract the disease, and
then later spreading AIDS to humans. The first know record of AIDS was in the
early 1980’s. During this time if someone was known to have AIDS they would be
banned from, churches, schools and other public activities (UNAIDS). Thankfully,
we are more accepting of diseases today. Some often feel, if they give to a
research fund, they too are fighting the battle against AIDS. Yes, while the
monetary contribution helps, the money mostly goes towards those living with
AIDS in America. In the U.S we do not often hear about AIDS in the news or a
marathon in honor of AIDS awareness. AIDS is not the leading cause of death in
America, thus some feel there is no need to talk about AIDS often. America is
known for helping other countries in need, however, every 12 seconds in a third
world country someone has contracted AIDS, and every 16 seconds AIDS takes
someone’s life (UNAIDS). There is so much that American can be doing. We must
start fighting for, those who cannot do it for themselves. We need to help
third world counties in their fight against AIDS.
While AIDS is usually the last
thought in our minds, AIDS continues to spread rapidly in third world
countries. “Africa has the worst problems, with an estimated 22.5 million individuals
living with AIDS (by contrast, North America has 890,000 cases). The South and Southeastern
Asia region has 6.7 million sufferers” (HIV & AIDS). The graph below shows
how much the global number of people living with HIV increase each year.
(NationMaster)
The
number one cause of the spread of AIDS in these countries is sexual
intercourse. The spread of AIDS appears to be just like a life cycle. Two HIV
positive adults have sexual intercourse, if a pregnancy occurs, the baby will
be born HIV positive. Assuming the baby lives to be an adult, then meets
someone who is not HIV positive and has sexual intercourse, has now spread the
disease to another person. This is a cycle that can and must be stopped.
“Education
will play a vital role in decreasing the number of AIDS cases in third world countries. Enrollment of children in schools
is very important because school is the primary
institution to give the message about AIDS to children. It is important to
being sex education when children
are young. Children should be educated about how to prevent getting infected with HIV and how they can utilize
the services available if they do
contract AIDS” (Espada).
Most
of the people living in third world countries have had little to no schooling
and what little schooling they had, probably is not going to be about AIDS
prevention. “Most AIDS infections in African children could have been prevented
if necessary initiatives would have been taken” (Zukoski). Those necessary
initiatives would be education and proper medical care. New drug treatments have
been discovered to possibly help with slowing down the spread of AIDS. These
treatments are very expensive and are currently only being offered to those in
countries that can afford it and have the education system to educate people
about the drug. If the drug is only offered to those who already have a good
medical system then the spread of AIDS will continue to grow.
There are many ways to help third
world countries in their battle with AIDS. Doctors without borders is an
organization in which medical doctors go to third world countries and provide
medical help for those suffering with diseases and illnesses (Doctors). While
not all of us are doctors, what we can do is support organizations like this
one and others by giving monetary gifts specifically for AIDS research and
treatments in third world countries. Those who do not know a lot about AIDS but
may know how to speak a few different languages are a tremendous help as well.
Being able to translate knowledge and information to others in their native
language will help education them and others about what AIDS is and how it is
spread and ways to stop the spread of this incurable disease. We need to help
third world and poverty stricken countries prevent the spread of AIDS and to
gain knowledge about this disease because “education is the movement from darkness to light” (Bell).
Works
Cited
Bell, Sigall K.,
Kevin Selby, and Courtney L. McMickens. AIDS. Santa Barbara, Calif.:
Greenwood, 2011. Print.
Copson, Raymond
W.. AIDS in Africa. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service,
Library of Congress, 2000. Print.
"Doctors
Without Borders." Doctors Without Borders. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May
2013. <http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/>.
Espada, J. P.,
Orgilés, M., Morales, A., Ballester, R., & Huedo-Medina, T. B. (2012).
Effectiveness of a School HIV/AIDS Prevention Program for Spanish Adolescents. AIDS
Education & Prevention, 24(6), 500-513.
doi:10.1521/aeap.2012.24.6.500
"HIV &
AIDS Information from AVERT.org." HIV & AIDS Information from
AVERT.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2013. <http://www.avert.org>.
"NationMaster
- World Statistics, Country Comparisons." NationMaster - World
Statistics, Country Comparisons. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2013.
<http://www.nationmaster.com>.
"UNAIDS."
UNAIDS. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2013. <http://www.unaids.org>.
Zukoski, A. P.,
Thorburn, S., & Stroud, J. (2011). Seeking information about HIV/AIDS: a
qualitative study of health literacy among people living with HIV/AIDS in a low
prevalence context. AIDS Care, 23(11), 1505-1508.
doi:10.1080/09540121.2011.582077
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