Health

For this week's blog post we were encouraged to write about any health related issue. I decided to write about something that there is no hiding from - HIV/AIDS. This infectious disease is something most are aware of, and is thought of as being deadly and terrifying. But what is the truth behind it? I will try to sum it up in an understandable, health related manner.

HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus which causes the illness AIDS. Key facts about HIV:

• It is a slow retrovirus - meaning it can take years to show symptoms.
• Invades the white blood cells in the blood by literally writing the structure of itself backwards (retro) into them and then it reproduces itself in the cells.
• This then targets the immune system as the white blood cells cannot fight off infection, and cell changes can then cause cancers - which is what happens to someone suffering from AIDS

It can be spread in the following ways:

• Sexual intercourse - exchange of body fluids.
• Contaminated needles
• Contaminated blood transfusions
• During pregnancy (mother to child)

The FACTS about AIDS:

• In 2008, globally, about 2 million people died of AIDS, 33.4 million were living with HIV and 2.7 million people were newly infected with the virus.
  
  
• HIV infections and AIDS deaths are unevenly distributed geographically and the nature of the epidemics vary by region. Epidemics are abating in some countries and burgeoning in others. More than 90 percent of people with HIV are living in the developing world.
  
  
• There is growing recognition that the virus does not discriminate by age, race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status – everyone is susceptible. However, certain groups are at particular risk of HIV, including men who have sex with men (MSM), injecting drug users (IDUs), and commercial sex workers (CSWs).
  
  
• The impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls has been particularly devastating. Women and girls now comprise 50 percent of those aged 15 and older living with HIV.
  
  
• The impact of HIV/AIDS on children and young people is a severe and growing problem. In 2008, 430,000 children under age 15 were infected with HIV and 280,000 died of AIDS.In addition, about 15 million children have lost one or both parents due to the disease.
  
  
• There are effective prevention and treatment interventions, as well as research efforts to develop new approaches, medications and vaccines.
  
  
• The sixth Millennium Development Goal (MDG) focuses on stopping and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015.
  
  
• Global funding is increasing, but global need is growing even faster – widening the funding gap. Services and funding are disproportionately available in developed countries.

This map below shows the geographical distribution of AIDS:

As you can see it is mainly the developing world which has the problem with HIV/AIDS - over 90% there as said earlier in facts list. This WorldMapper map below shows HIV/AIDS deaths and changes the country's size on the map in relation to how large the number of deaths is with the AIDS cause in the country:

This just emphasizes the point about the developing world, with Africa looking so big.

What can be done about it?

Management of HIV/AIDS takes the following forms:

1. The hunt for a vaccine
2. Prolonging life through drugs - people with AIDS are expected to die young, before age 40 typically - but some drugs, albeit expensive, can prolong life further. HAART (highly active anti-retroviral therapy) is a cheap form, but is hard to get it to people in LEDC's who may not even know they are HIV-positive!
3. Plotting the course of an outbreak - this then helps people to predict the future spread of the disease, identifying areas where resources should be concentrated.
4. Screening blood 
5. Education and advertising - encouraging people to have safe sex. Condom's can be a lifesaver! Although this can be particularly hard in places such as Sub-Saharan Africa, people are trying to make a difference.
6. Caring for victims and families - charities can be a big help such as the Terrence Higgins Trust and London Lighthouse in the UK, two charities trying to help the families as well as AIDS victims.

Opinions on HIV/AIDS are changing worldwide, the hunt for a vaccine goes on, but what is currently believed is this:

• The spread of HIV/AIDS is rooted in problems of poverty, food and livelihood insecurity, sociocultural inequality, and poor support services and infrastructure.
• Responses to HIV/AIDS have grown and improved over the last decade, but they are still not good enough: the epidemic is worsening and the human population needs to catch up.

Thanks for reading!