The Disease Aids And The Us Public Health Department

In Ronald O. Valdiserri’s article “Thirty Years of AIDs in America: A Story of Infinite Hope,” it is said that we have data that shows we have improved in our prevention of AIDs/HIVs diseases over the years. However, Valdiserri’s article also points out that these statistics contained data resulted from inadequate or incomplete information, which makes me question how much do we really know about the improvements being identified.

The Center for Disease Control provides leadership, guidance, and research to help control the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic by working alongside the communities on a state and national level. They are also partners with other countries abroad in research, surveillance and evaluation of activities among the world’s population. The activities monitored are critical to CDC due to the estimated 1.1 million Americans infected with the disease. Some of these infected populations do not know they are infected and the number increases each year.

The definition of AIDS is a disease in which there is a severe loss of the body’s cellular immunity, greatly lowered the resistance for things like infections and other bacteria’s and malignancy. The disease first started in the continent of Africa, which was apart of the chimpanzee version of a virus much like immunodeficiency virus. Which was known as simian human’s virus, this disease mutated and then manifested into the HIV virus once human beings began to hunt chimps. The disease Aids can be spread through the blood stream in a person, through cuts and things like that. Also it can be spread through unprotected sex and through the transactions of bodily fluids between different people. Once AIDS first was sited in

During the timeline of aids, studies show that the virus probably transferred to humans in Africa between 1884 and 1924 (Anabel Kanabus, 2009). There were signs of it spreading through Haiti in 1966; estimations of this virus entering the United States are in the 1970. African doctors see a rise in opportunistic infections; this means that it takes advantage of the opportunity offered by a weakened immune system. Western scientists and doctors remain ignorant of the growing epidemic; this is what caused HIV to spread and kill innocent lives. The first case of aids found was through gay men, following by drug users injecting themselves not using a clean sterilized needle. In 1982, aids were reported in several European countries, the name “AIDS” (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), is created. In 1983, AIDS is reported among non-drug using women and children, Experts become more confident that the cause of AIDS is infectious.

AIDS is one of many outbreak diseases that have hit the U.S. It has spread all over the world and has been a major epidemic to our society. The disease started in the U.S. in the 1980s and has spread all over the states. AIDS is spread from person to person by unsafe sex, blood, and a mother’s birth milk because it is one of many transmittable diseases. You cannot get it from kissing, hugging, or just by random touch as some people might think. AIDS does not have a cure, but the symptoms can be reduced by treatments. AIDS has the ability to change a person or family’s life forever and it is important to know about this disease

Since the emergence of the HIV epidemic in the early 1980s, strategies have been put into place by state governments to help with the spread of the HIV virus from those who are HIV-positive to those in the general public who are HIV-negative (Lehman et al., 2014). Some of the laws that have been enacted by the state have protected the rights and liberties of individuals with HIV; for example, the laws promoting HIV screening and the enactment of federal laws that protect the confidentiality of HIV-positive persons (Neff & Goldschmidt, 2011; aspe.hhs.gov). But on the other hand, in addition to implementing laws that protected the HIV population, some States also enacted laws that criminalized individuals living with HIV/AIDS (Lazzarini, Bray, & Burris, 2002).

As AIDS continues to engulf the globe with disease, there are more and more people who are being affected by it. Here in the United States, there were over 56,300 new HIV infections in 2006 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Yet, the numbers of new infections are only the

Aids stands for an acquired immune deficiency syndrome and is caused by a virus called HIV or Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The immune deficiency was discovered and informed in the early 1980’s. This deficiency takes over the body, making humans much weaker and susceptible to catching diseases and infections. As HIV grows, it gets stronger and the syndrome progresses. Doctors are

Thirty-five years on June 5, 1981, what began with five cases of a rare lung infection (Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia) among five otherwise healthy gay men eventually emerged as global health crisis, which in 1982, was formally identified as acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Another two years would pass before scientists were able to isolate the retrovirus that causes AIDS, which in 1984 was termed human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV). Although a successful discovery, in the absence of a proven treatment, HIV and AIDS had free rein in which to leave in its wake a global path of fear, illness, and death. To understand the totality of HIV/AIDS, consider the following. Since the onset of the pandemic more than 70 million people have been infected with HIV, 35 million people have died of AIDS-related illnesses, and globally, at the end of 2015, an estimated 39.8 people were living with HIV (World Health Organization, 2016). Notwithstanding the global significance of HIV/AIDS, this paper, aside from a historical overview of HIV/AIDS, will focus solely on the continuing public health threat of HIV/AIDS in the United States.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic has spread to every country in the world and has infected 59 million persons worldwide, including 20 million who have already died. CDC estimates that about 56,000 people in the United States contracted HIV in 2006 (1). HIV is the virus that leads to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. In terms of fatalities, with more than 35 million deaths, the AIDS epidemic now ranks alongside the influenza pandemic of the early 1900s and the Bubonic plague of the fourteenth century(4).

Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV was first clinically observed in the United States in June 1981 in healthy young gay men, originating in Los Angeles, California. On June 5th 1981, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), quite quietly, published an article describing five cases of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) in gay men in this region with two of the five already dead. This Morbidity and Morality Weekly Report (MMWR) issued by the CDC is the first reporting of the AIDS outbreak that was soon to follow. Once the report was issued, the CDC received 26b reports of similar cases of this pneumonia along with Kaposi’s Sarcoma (KS), a rare skin cancer, among the same demographic in New York and California. Because the disease was limited to the gay male population, and little was known about it besides the fact that it targeted the immune system, it was called GRID among the media standing for Gay- Related Immune Deficiency. By years end, 270 cases of severe immune deficiency in gay males were reported with 121 already reported dead. In 1982, the term AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome was first used by the CDC along with reporting a case definition to medical professionals and the public.a In the few years to follow, the CDC determined the other routes of HIV infection and transmission following discovery in infants and women and the World Heath Organization (WHO) got involved in the epidemic. By 1985, at least one case of HIV virus had been

Back at the household level, families are forced to redistribute whatever remaining income they have in order to care for sick family members, or to provide for themselves if the income earner has passed away. Children and youth are removed from their schooling and expected to care for the sick, grandparents expected to look after their grandchildren, and many children are left orphaned and under the care and expense of the national government. Families are socially excluded, burdened with health costs, and the overall demographic and future of Africa is changing as the youth are either contracting the virus or not able to attend school, hampering their employment options in the future. A nation specific micro level example of how HIV/AIDS impacts a nation was a study that was conducted in South Africa that determined the factual negative impact on their economy. They found these conclusions due to the HIV/AIDS disease: a lower labour force, lower productivity, a cost pressure on companies, lower incomes, lower population, decreased investment potential, an increased demand for health services and lastly a higher government expenditure on these required health services (Drimie). From this one can see how the disease can impact a nation and therefore begin to understand the macro, global impact this disease can have in the years to come if an adequate treatment or cure is not put in place to slow the spread of the HIV virus.

AIDS is a relatively new disease that emerged in the 20th century. It has spread to all parts of the world and claims millions of lives each year. One of the countries that has been impacted the most is South Africa. There are 6.1 million people living with HIV and around 370 000 new cases a year, according to the UNAIDS "Global report" from 2013. Though major cities like Jonesburg are vastly developed, much of the country still remains rural, which aids in the spread of the disease. The country has the largest retroviral program in the world but 240 000 people are dying of AIDS related disease each year1. Understanding the social construction and causation of the disease is vital for devising a plan to help combat the spread of HIV in South Africa. The virus has no regards of social status or race. Usually the ones who suffer the most are the poor and the minorities. The poor living conditions, lack of sanitation , sexual habits of the population and the ineffective government efforts up to 1994 exacerbated the problem.

The pandemic known as AIDS was first found in a human blood sample around the year 1959 and was later introduced to the United States in the late 1970s to early 1980s. “From 1979–1981 rare types of pneumonia, cancer, and other illnesses were being reported by doctors in Los Angeles and New York among a number of male patients who had sex with other men (“Where did HIV come from?”).” Due to these occurrences, doctors did their research and were able to trace the cause of this fatal disease called Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS is a disease that developed from the virus, HIV, which is a virus that attacks the immune system. AIDS can commonly be called the third and final stage of HIV, because the virus has entered its most severe stage in its life span and the cell count of a person’s immune system has dropped below 200. “When the number of your CD4 cells falls below 200 cells per cubic millimeter of blood (200 cells/mm3), you are considered to have progressed to AIDS. (In someone with a healthy immune system, CD4 counts are between 500 and 1,600 cells/mm3.)(“What Are The Stages of the HIV Infection?”).” The disease has shown to increasingly weaken our immune system by killing off T-cells that act as defenders to prevent illnesses and diseases. Although, AIDS has been reported in many cases all over the world, the actual spreading of AIDS is impossible. People who have AIDS are not infected with the disease directly, instead they are infected with HIV which later

There are so many diseases that are affecting our society today. Of those many diseases are sexually transmitted diseases. The human immunodeficiency virus, also known as HIV, is a virus that infects almost 50,000 people each year. In 2010, almost 47,000 people in the U.S. were infected. The virus can eventually lead to AIDS, which stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. ³