Comfort Senesie
Dr. DeJoy
HIV/AIDS in South Africa
Africa is arguably the poorest continent in the world as shown by statistics from World Health Organization, United Nation Children’s Fund and the World Bank. Growing up in Africa, I have been a first- hand witness to abject poverty which I believe is interconnected to illiteracy, higher infant and maternal mortality rates, life expectancy and the continuous presence of diseases. Even though Southern Africa has made some strides addressing some of these issues, the country’s inability to combat one of the deadliest diseases in the world, HIV/AIDS, remains a prominent public health concern. “The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) targets the immune system and weakens people’s
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“Southern Africa is the most affected region accounting for more than 70% of the global total of new infections” (WHO, 2012). As worrisome as these numbers are, researches have shown that HIV/AIDS disproportionately affect more women than men. “For every ten men infected, 13 women are HIV positive” (UNAID, 2013). This has additional implications for mother- child transmission which has been listed as one of the ways that the disease is spread. South Africa is still battling the remnants of racial discrimination that plagued the country’s recent history. This racial divide is evident in the trend of this disease as well. According to a recent UNAIDS report, “13.6% of black South Africans are HIV positive, whereas only 0.3% of whites living in South Africa has the disease” (UNAIDS, 2013).
Like any other health condition, there are some behaviors and conditions that put individuals at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. UNICEF in a recent report explained that “However, it is also true that schools themselves may contribute to adolescent vulnerability by subjecting young girls to sexual abuse by teachers and by reinforcing adverse gender norms” (UNICEF,2008). According to a 2013 UNAIDS report, sex work is a practice that is common in South Africa and regions with high incidence rate of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted
In The Invisible Cure, Helen Epstein talks about why HIV/AIDS rate is so high in Africa compared to the rest of the world. Through the book, she gives us an account of the disease and the struggles that many health experts and ordinary Africans went through to understand this disease, and how different African countries approached the same problem differently. Through this paper, I will first address the different ways Uganda and Southern African countries, South Africa and Botswana in particular, dealt with this epidemic, and then explain how we can use what we have learned from these African countries to control outbreaks of communicable disease elsewhere around the world.
Did you know “AIDS is the leading cause of death in Africa” (Quinn, online). Twenty percent of Africa’s population has died from AIDS. Poverty is a big problem in Africa. Men have been forced to become migrant workers in urban areas. And antiretroviral treatment at this time is not available to African people. AIDS is a big problem in Africa today that is now requiring help from the world.
Ladies make up 70 percent of those that live on a US dollar for every day or marginally more. These are the same individuals that are most influenced by HIV and they get got in a cycle in which destitution sustains more HIV diseases and HIV contaminations propagates more neediness (“Women and HIV/AIDS” 3). It is likewise not remarkable for devastated young ladies to take part in "value-based" associations with more seasoned men, taking part in sexual associations with more established men in return for cash or endowments as a method for survival. In this occurrence, UNAIDS Deputy Director Kathleen Cravero contends that instruction would be valuable in breaking the cycle of intergenerational sex and subsequently taking tremendous steps to breaking the cycle of contamination (Fleshman). Cravero likewise touches on the significance of science in the "stunning rates" of HIV among ladies around the world, as the white paper from the Soroptimist presented. Ladies are twice as likely as men to contract HIV as a result of weakness inside of the vaginal film. More youthful ladies have a particularly high hazard in light of the fact that their bodies have not completely created and are accordingly more powerless to harm – including tearing – and contamina (“Women and HIV/AIDS” 7;
In the sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of the population suffers from HIV leading to AIDS. The culprits responsible for this epidemic include the lack of knowledge about the disease, disuse of condoms due to religious practices and the overall poor hygiene. If left untreated, the rampant surge of AIDS can terrribly impact the cost of their healthcare, the African economy and the welfare of the people. This implications justify immediately finding remedies to what ails the sub-Saharan population.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the region of the world that is most affected by HIV/AIDS. The United Nations reports that an estimated 25.4 million people are living with HIV and that approximately 3.1 million new infections occurred in 2004. To put these figures in context, more than 60 percent of the people living with the infection reside in Africa. Even these staggering figures do not quite capture the true extent and impact that this disease causes on the continent. In 1998, about 200,000 Africans died as a result of various wars taking place on the continent. In that same year, more than 2 million succumbed to HIV/AIDS (Botchwey, 2000).
This essay will compare the effects of gender, and living environment on women in South Africa and Australia, and also to explore how the societies in these two countries have changed and adapted as a result of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS; Avert, 2017). South Africa is considered to have the largest with the highest profile HIV epidemic in the world, with around seven million people living with HIV in 2015. There was an estimated 380,000 new infections while 180,000 South African women died from illnesses that related to HIV or AIDS also in 2015 (Avert, A. 2017). The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNIAIDS) Adolescent girls and young women account for one in four new HIV infections
At the end of 2009, an estimated 33.3 million people globally were living with HIV. In that year alone, there were an estimated 1.8 million AIDS-related deaths and 2.6 million new HIV infections. Data from 2009 shows that the AIDS epidemic is beginning to change course as the number of people newly infected with HIV is declining and AIDS –related deaths are decreasing. This is in large part due to more people living longer as access to antiretroviral theraphy increases, but these gains remain fragile and disparities continue to exist among countries and within countries. Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the region most affected with 69% of all new infections and in seven mostly Eastern European and Central Asian countries, new HIV infection rates have increased by 25%.
More than 90% of the infections came from the global south. In class we have discussed how underfunded third world countries like Africa are. Their women can’t afford contraceptives let alone medicine to prevent HIV. Women in areas like these don’t have many civil rights and depend on the help of others to aide them. The article talks about how there is new aides available but the road blocks of getting it to the people who need it interfere greatly. The topic of aids is not discussed like it should be. The effect it can have on one’s life is greatly underestimated by today’s youth. It has to be understood that the disease is still out there and a cure hasn’t come to the surface yet. It’s dangerous and life threatening and young people need to be educated on
Just as clearly, experience shows that the right approaches, applied quickly enough with courage and resolve, can and do result in lower HIV infection rates and less suffering for those affected by the epidemic. An ever-growing AIDS epidemic is not inevitable; yet, unless action against the epidemic is scaled up drastically, the damage already done will seem minor compared with what lies ahead. This may sound dramatic, but it is hard to play down the effects of a disease that stands to kill more than half of the young adults in the countries where it has its firmest hold—most of them before they finish the work of caring for their children or providing for their elderly parents. Already, 18.8 million people around the world have died of AIDS, 3.8 million of them children. Nearly twice that many—34.3 million—are now living with HIV, the virus [9].
Concerning prevention of HIV infection, we must appreciate that while worldwide prevalence of HIV infection in women is 50%, in sub-Saharan Africa this figure is 57%.1 Moreover, young women when compared with young men, are 3 times more likely to be infected.1 Given the particular vulnerability of young women, programmes need to be focussed on reducing infection in young women and therefore in children. Gender equality is a worldwide problem, with many women not allowed basic human rights. Women should be offered equal access to information so they are adequately educated with regards to protecting themselves and preventing HIV infection. It is important that men and women understand that both parties need to take equal responsibility when it comes to sexual behaviour. Furthermore, we need to aim to eliminate physical and
The United States has been fixated on its mission to abolish the sex industry since the start of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. George W. Bush and Congress created the United States Leadership against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 with the intention of funding beneficial programs furthering the research and accessibility of HIV/AIDS treatment. (Middleberg, 2006). The beneficiaries of this funding must show their opposition towards prostitution and sex trafficking in order to continue receiving funds under the policy. In the event that any of these nongovernmental organizations promotes the legalization of prostitution, the decrease of punishment for prostitution, or the unionization of sex workers, the NGO would be in violation of this policy and would therefore lose their funding. The intentions of the former president and Congress were directed at various issues, such as the safety violations associated with prostitution. These detriments involve violence, substance abuse, exploitation, sexually transmitted diseases, and debt, among other risks. This policy has a very strict procedure against a profession that is often a person’s last option and, under proper regulation, can also be a harmless one.
South Africa currently has the largest number of people in the world living with HIV/AIDS (avert.org, 2014). In the worldwide population, there are 37 million people with HIV and 25.8 million of those people live in Sub-Saharan Africa (AMFAR.org, 2015). This total is 70% of the total population diagnosed and 88% of the HIV population are children (amfAR.org, 2015). The Foundation for AIDS Research estimates that 1.4 million people were infected in 2014, and Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 66% of the AIDS mortality rate in 2014 (amfAR.org, 2015). Many political,
The HIV epidemic has mainly been concentrated amongst the most economically depleted regions of Africa and, within affected countries; HIV infection is more prevalent in the most marginalized groups. Poverty, disease, famine, political and economic instability, and socioeconomic inequalities continue to aggravate the epidemic on the continent. The positive correlation between poverty and HIV/AIDS can be seen time and time again due to the intensity and transmission of the epidemic having strong links with poverty (Mohammad). Malnutrition, which goes hand in hand with poverty, takes a toll on the immune system resulting in individuals becoming more susceptible to infectious diseases. Not only that, those infected with HIV are more likely to become deprived due to a decline in personal productivity and expensive treatment.
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is one of many infectious diseases that plague the world today. According to the 2007 AIDS epidemic update put out by The United Nations Joint Program on HIV/AIDS (UNIADS) there were approximately 2.1 million AIDS related deaths and 33.2 million people infected with HIV world wide (UNAIDS/WHO Working Group, 2007). Despite its abundant resources and its well-developed financial sectors, South Africa has the largest HIV infected population in the world with approximately 5.7 million of its 44 million citizens living with HIV/AIDS (Global Health Facts, 2007). These 5.7 million cases alone account for over 28% of
South Africa’s labor supply is negatively affected by incidences of HIV/AIDS because of increased mortality and morbidity. AIDS decreases fertility rates and deaths from the disease ultimately lowers the population and labor force. Workers in key sectors of the economy such as mining and healthcare have been particularly affected. One study done by researchers, (R Elias, University of Botswana, personal communication, 2000), estimated that the mining workforce aged between 30 and 44 would see a decrease from 60% to 15% in 2015. South African Healthcare professionals are also heavily impacted, 20% of student nurses are infected with HIV [2]. There is a dearth of data on HIV prevalence in the public domain but a few studies have been done in high risk sectors like transport and mining.