Diseases HIV/ AIDS

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 608.

Worldwide, AIDS has killed over 25 million people and nearly 3 million extra people became infected in 2009. HIV is the virus that you catch and AIDS is basically the name for all the symptoms you catch when your immune system has been degraded. People normally die from diseases that they have caught because of there weak immune system e.g. pneumonia. When HIV was first discovered, victims would have a fairly short like expectancy (a few years). However, even though there is still no cure peoples lives can be prolonged for years because of drugs designed to support your immune system.

How do you get HIV

· Unprotected sexual intercourse with a HIV sufferer

· Sharing needles with an infect HIV sufferer (common amongst drug users)

· Receiving a blood transfer from infected blood (nearly all blood around the world is now tested)

· Breast feeding

· Mother to unborn child (this can be prevented if the mother knows that she is infected).

Africa is the continent hit the hardest with HIV

Causes

· Lack of education about HIV (causes, transmission, prevention).

· Not enough availability of condoms, as well as knowledge of how they are used.

· Pologymy. The tradition of taking more than one wife.

· Lack of testing. Much of the population does not know that it has HIV.

· Prostitution. Many prostitutes are infected but don't know so continue to transmit the disease.

· Sexual crime. There is a high rate of sexual crime in South Africa which helps spread the disease

· Urban myths. Many uneducated people believe myths about HIV that are untrue. For example Jacob Zuma believed a shower after sex would reduce chance of catching HIV.

· Migrant population. When a lot of people move for work HIV can be spread easily between communities.

· Religious beliefs. some religions don't allow the use of condoms. However, it must also be remembered most religions discourage sex before marriage and promote only one sexual partner (husband and wife)

· Poor medical hygiene - possibly dirty medical equipment and untreated blood

Problems

· Individually, people will experience a decline in their immune system, becoming sicker and possibly dieing.

· High cost of having to treat HIV and AIDS patients.

· There will be an effective increase in the dependency ration because less people will be able to work because of sickness.

· The country may see a reduction in tourism and investment as people are reluctant to travel to a country with high infection rates.

· The country will have to pay large amounts of money to be able to buy anti-retroviral drugs (this is not a cure, but it helps support victims immune system).

· Life expectancy rapidly reduces in countries with high infection rates and death rates increase.

· There are a large number of orphans as many parents die.

· There may be a shortage of workers which can lead to economic decline and food shortages. There may not be enough essential workers like teachers.