First aid

For the better part of the last three decades, HIV/AIDS has been a global epidemic that has robbed many people of their loved ones. Whether directly or indirectly, the pandemic has touched each of our lives and it has become increasingly urgent that new ways are developed to combat and eventually eradicate the disease. HIV/AIDS is made up of two acronyms. HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. As the name suggests, it is a virus which attacks blood cells killing the immune system and…

Spottiswoode depicting the epidemic of the AIDS virus. As the film first starts off, Dr. Francis whose working for the CDC heads over to Africa to study the Ebola Fever. The Ebola outbreak was controlled before it reached further distance of the outside world, but it was a warning for worse to come. HIV, also known as Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a virus that attacks the immune system. After time, when the immune system becomes much weaker it turns into AIDS, also known as Acquired…

Studies conducted on the first syringe exchange program, which began in Tacoma, Washington in 1988, found that there was a more than 60 percent reduction in the risk for users contracting hepatitis B or C after the program’s inception. In addition, in another study during the 1990’s, which took place in New York and involved 1,600 drug users, researchers found that users who did not participate in a needle exchange program were three times more susceptible to contracting HIV/AIDS than…

One of the first things that really shocked me enough to put the book down and just shake my head was on page seventeen when the author provides a quote from the founder of the Silver Ring Thing which is an abstinence only program which preaches inaccurate information…

infection is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It can take 10-15 years for an HIV-infected person to develop AIDS; antiretroviral drugs can slow down the process even further.” (World Health Organization, WHO) HIV/AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease (STD). A person infected with HIV has to live with it all their lives as it is still currently incurable. In all but a very small number of cases, HIV/AIDS damages an individual’s…

Philadelphia is a drama film written by Ron Nyswaner illustrating the cultural stigmas of HIV in the 1990s. This film was released in 1993 being one of the first films to acknowledge homosexuality and HIV. The premise of this film is surrounding a court case regarding discrimination of sexual orientation against a fictional character, Andrew Buckett (Tom Hanks). As Andrew Buckett was only recently diagnosed with HIV and had been a closet homosexual for many years meaning none of his colleagues…

The virus was first documented discovered by Dr. Louis Montagnier, who resided in France in 1983. Although, the cases identified in the United States were not the first known cases after physician’s started taking a closer look at undiagnosed cases. Robert R. a teenager in St. Louis in 1969 entered the hospital with shortness of breath and infections, and passed shortly after (Bell). Additionally, in Central Africa in the middle of the 1970’s, there were reports of people deteriorating, and…

and uses them to make copies of itself and then destroy them. Once HIV destroys so many of these cells your body is unable to fight off infection or disease anymore and when this happen HIV can develop into AIDS which is the final stage of HIV infection. It is possible to never progress to AIDS and this is possible if you seek treatment. Antiretroviral Therapy helps to keep the HIV virus low within your body, this treatment involves taking a specific combination of medicines every day. By…

HIV/AIDS is an immunodeficiency virus that attacks the body 's cell. HIV/AIDS are not two separate diseases, they are just two different stages of the same disease, AIDS being the more severe of the two. HIV or human immunodeficiency virus affects and attacks specific cells within the human body, weakening the immune system. AIDS or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is the final stage of the HIV infection, and not everyone progresses to this stage of HIV. “AIDS is the stage of infection that…

and educating their population about AIDS/HIV. This paper will focus on the policy level of the socio-ecologic model to determine what policies and programs were implemented that led to this accomplishment. Initially the country had a fast response to the outbreak, developing government departments to fight the disease and securing global and domestic funding. This was followed by many policies and programs. Including universal and free treatment of HIV/AIDS through antiretroviral therapy (ART),…