AIDS in Africa
The fact is that HIV/AIDS cases in Africa have reached outrageous proportions, but that isn't new news. The epidemic plaguing most of the continent has gone untreated for over two decades. In fact, the world knew very little about the disease until it struck home in several major western countries. Even then, people neglected the notion that it might destroy millions of people because we were afraid of this new and unknown disease. Still in 1988, a survey of college students showed our nation's ignorance about the disease. The study reported that the majority of college students viewed AIDS as a "gay" disease and cited homosexuals as the carriers. Luckily, scientists began to search, in the 1980s, for reasons and answers regarding HIV (Umeh, 1997, p. XV). Today, the disease is still a monster killing and infecting millions. Unfortunately, Africa is the last place to receive help from its international neighbors and the epidemic is reaching catastrophic numbers. The area of Africa where the epidemic has reached these astonishing heights is mostly in the south, but a majority of northern African countries also have large numbers of the population infected. Since our first acknowledgement of the disease in 1981, throughout
Culturally, most of sub-Saharan Africa is out of the mix of western ideas and practices. They have kept their own traditions and perspectives from their ancient ancestors far longer than any western cultures. Unfortunately, while western civilizations have developed and use prevention technologies, many countries in sub-Saharan Africa do not. The do not use these technologies because they do not have the resources to afford these preventions or treatments. Also, cultural differences such as marriage and acceptable sexual activities have never been clearly defined. Young people in sub-Saharan Africa are having unprotected sex in outrageous numbers. This increases the chance for infection exponentially, especially when these children have multiple partners. Furthermore, children are the most vulnerable to the disease and have the toughest time fighting the infection because of the immaturity in their bodies. The Population Reference Bureau estimates that every year babies are born to 14% of young women aged 15-19 in sub-Saharan Africa, compared with 6% of young women in other less developed countries and just 3% in the industrialized world. Many of these births are outside of marriage. High levels of teen pregnancy and pregnancy outside of marriage, do tell us two things: young people are very sexually active, and few of them use condoms (Confronting AIDS, 1999, p. 124-129). If young people are having unprotected sex with several partners, or if their single partner has ever had other partners, they are exposed not just to pregnancy but to infection with sexually transmitted diseases, including the one that can kill them: HIV (Butler and Thomas, 1997, p. 148). Sadly, sub-Saharan Africa is home to more children infected with HIV/AIDS than any other region on earth. Even worse is that sub-Saharan Africa is producing more and more children into this worsening environment (Knox and Martson, 2001, p. 125, 141). Many of these children will become orphans and the vicious cycle will repeat itself. The fact is more education leads to more safe sex, but young Africans cannot afford things such as condoms (Butler and Thomas, 1997, p.148). Education about the epidemic is costly and not enough of the right people are getting this useful information. If they are getting this educational information, which has proven to help reduce the number of infections, few can afford the resources to help themselves prevent, test for, or treat the disease (Confronting AIDS, 1999, p. 123). The pattern created with the spread of AIDS during the last twenty years is very intriguing. Although scientists are still unsure of where, how, or what HIV came from, they have learned tons of useful information to help fight back. Its origin is most likely somewhere in central Africa, but that has never been absolutely proven. AIDS is caused by the virus HIV and the term AIDS means "Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome". We now know that AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) that is spread from person to person via fluid transfer and it is easier for a woman to contract it than a man. It also infects people through sharing intravenous needles, usually illegal drug use. Furthermore, AIDS can change its genetic code to
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Approximate Word count = 2179
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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