Introduction Human immunodeficiency virus or HIV is a virus that is exclusively transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids such as unprotected sex, using dirty needles, along with childbirth from an infected mother. HIV causes great harm to the body by attacking the body’s immune system by destroying a type of white blood cell known as the T-helper cell. This damages the immune system and reduces the body’s ability to fight off other infections. If left untreated HIV can develop into acquired immune deficiency syndrome or AIDS; a condition which happens when a person’s number of T-helper cells drops below 200 cells per milliliter of blood (AVERT, 2016). At this late stage of the HIV infection the body can no longer defend itself,
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Initially, China focused on control strategies that aimed to stop HIV from entering the country by enacting laws that banned the import of blood into the country and required foreigners and Chinese returning from overseas to have an HIV test. China also attempted to stop the spread of HIV in the country by strengthening drug and prostitution laws and authorizing authorities to isolate HIV-positive individuals. After these control strategies proved to be a failure the Chinese government shifted to more prevention focused strategies similar to the strategies employed by the United States. The Chinese government has largely focused on preventing HIV spread through injection drug use; one of the most common ways HIV is spread in China. These policies include: voluntary detoxification for first time drug users and compulsory rehabilitation for those that relapse; providing anti-drug education for the public and in schools; needle exchange programs like those in the United States and increasing the availability of needles in combination with education on safe injection practices; and the relaxing of the requirements to receive drug treatment programs at drug treatment clinics (Wu, Sullivan, Wang, Rotheram-Borus, & Detels, 2007). China also has developed strategies to combat the sexual …show more content…
The discipline of sociology could study the many underlying social issues surrounding HIV/AIDS such as harmful stigmas and discrimination that might discourage infected people from looking for treatment. Sociology would say it is more relevant to HIV/AIDS because looking at the problem as a social issue would identify the larger social conditions that affect or even at the root of the problem; such as conditions that influence people to partake in activities that put them at risk in the first place (Patterson & Wolf, 2010). Political science could study the political issues and solutions surrounding the problem of HIV/AIDS and the political effort put into implementing policies related to HIV/AIDS. Political science would argue that it is most relevant to the issue because the “epidemic is fueled by injustices” and that HIV/AIDS “exacerbates multiple fault lines of social and economic inequality and injustice, which in themselves are highly political” (Piot, Russell, & Larson, 2007). It could also be said that public health advances have their beginnings in politicians responding to the desires of their electorate (Piot et al.,
Initially, China focused on control strategies that aimed to stop HIV from entering the country by enacting laws that banned the import of blood into the country and required foreigners and Chinese returning from overseas to have an HIV test. China also attempted to stop the spread of HIV in the country by strengthening drug and prostitution laws and authorizing authorities to isolate HIV-positive individuals. After these control strategies proved to be a failure the Chinese government shifted to more prevention focused strategies similar to the strategies employed by the United States. The Chinese government has largely focused on preventing HIV spread through injection drug use; one of the most common ways HIV is spread in China. These policies include: voluntary detoxification for first time drug users and compulsory rehabilitation for those that relapse; providing anti-drug education for the public and in schools; needle exchange programs like those in the United States and increasing the availability of needles in combination with education on safe injection practices; and the relaxing of the requirements to receive drug treatment programs at drug treatment clinics (Wu, Sullivan, Wang, Rotheram-Borus, & Detels, 2007). China also has developed strategies to combat the sexual …show more content…
The discipline of sociology could study the many underlying social issues surrounding HIV/AIDS such as harmful stigmas and discrimination that might discourage infected people from looking for treatment. Sociology would say it is more relevant to HIV/AIDS because looking at the problem as a social issue would identify the larger social conditions that affect or even at the root of the problem; such as conditions that influence people to partake in activities that put them at risk in the first place (Patterson & Wolf, 2010). Political science could study the political issues and solutions surrounding the problem of HIV/AIDS and the political effort put into implementing policies related to HIV/AIDS. Political science would argue that it is most relevant to the issue because the “epidemic is fueled by injustices” and that HIV/AIDS “exacerbates multiple fault lines of social and economic inequality and injustice, which in themselves are highly political” (Piot, Russell, & Larson, 2007). It could also be said that public health advances have their beginnings in politicians responding to the desires of their electorate (Piot et al.,