Comapring The Response To Hiv/Aids And SarsEssay Preview: Comapring The Response To Hiv/Aids And SarsReport this essayHIV/AIDSHistoryAcquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), is a human viral disease that destroys the immune system, which prevents the body from combating infection and disease. AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which leaves infected persons susceptible to opportunistic infections. Such infections are not fatal in HIV negative persons, but in those whose immune systems have been weakened by the virus, they can be deadly. HIV is believed to have begun in isolated parts of central Africa where the retrovirus made the jump from chimpanzees to humans. Evidence of this was found when retroviruses in AIDS patients appeared more similar to those found in the chimpanzees than to other human retroviruses. It is likely that the retrovirus infected people who ingested chimpanzee meat and it subsequently underwent mutations to form the human retrovirus. Scientists have confirmed that the virus made the jump from chimpanzees to humans around the 1940s or 1950s. However, the virus was slow to spread because members of these rural communities had limited contact with people from other areas. The 1960s and the 1970s brought political upheaval, wars, drought, and famine which resulted in rural-urban migration as many people were in search of jobs. As migration broadened to include world travel, HIV became a global epidemic.
(PI, Encarta)Social ResponseAt the time of its emergence, HIV/AIDS was thought to be most common among homosexual, bisexual, and drug-using persons (Waugh, 580). These lifestyles were taboos in and of themselves and subsequently the topic of HIV/AIDS became a taboo; a disease for immoral persons. Hence, societies and governments turned the other cheek to the disease. They were able to get away with doing so not only because the affected groups were outcasts of society, but also because HIV/AIDS did not begin as the large-scale disease that it is today. This enabled the disease to be further downplayed by the government and overlooked by society. Furthermore, because the time period was so conservative, many persons affected by the virus did not disclose their status and in some cases were in denial about having the virus. For example, around the same time that the virus was prevalent in “Pattern 1” countries, heterosexual persons in “Pattern 2” countries were being affected by HIV/AIDS as well. Pattern 2 countries were also characterized by mother to child transmission and infection via contaminated blood products. Their silence and denial served to further compound the ignorance and lack of proactive initiatives concerning HIV/AIDS.
(Waugh, 581)Economic ResponseFinally, in 1981 HIV/AIDS was officially recognized in medical accounts. This followed the disease moving through to larger groups/communities. Evidence became available that HIV/AIDS was not solely a consequence of immoral lifestyles and that intervention was greatly delayed. For over two decades governments were able to get away with ignoring the disease. This was easy, not only because the social stigma around the disease caused it to be downplayed, but also because for a long time HIV/AIDS did not affect countries economies. South Africa is one such country whose government not only ignored the virus, but denied until early this year that HIV caused AIDS. The government was able to get away with such a ludicrous notion because of the nature of HIV; sufferers do not die from the virus, but from related infections which their bodies cannot fight because of the virus. Furthermore, in admitting that HIV causes AIDS, the government would be committing to a responsibility it was not willing to undertake. This responsibility would include providing medical and financial support to HIV infected persons. Such support includes, but is not limited to: counselling, medication, and some sort of care for their families after their death should they be the sole bread winner.
Because HIV/AIDS is a degenerative disease and the starting numbers were small, countries did not suffer great losses in population from the onset. This allowed economic dynamics to continue normally until the diseases effects began to have an impact on the economy. This impact was noticeable in a decline in the labour force; these persons were most drastically affected. In majority of the worlds societies, the labour force is made up of less educated and illiterate persons and thus they are the least informed about HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. Furthermore, they have the least economic amenities to obtain medical care. However, because the labour force is such a large and vital part of countries economies, deaths in this sector upset economies.
Consequently, health care in non-communist societies is not in such poor condition because of inadequate health care (Gassan et al. 2009). More recently, other studies have shown that HIV/ AIDS survivors in healthcare settings in less developed countries have higher rates of lower respiratory illnesses (Gassan et al. 2013). Some of these lower respiratory illnesses are associated with increased transmission of HIV among infected persons and patients.
In addition, health care systems in different regions (especially the poorest developing countries) are less effective with HIV infection. Even among African countries where the prevalence of HIV increases rapidly, the health system and health care infrastructure still fail to function effectively. HIV continues to be a serious disease and its treatment continues to remain the most effective method. Furthermore, when it comes to HIV/AIDS, there is considerable political resistance for the protection of public and private health services during and after the epidemics. Because of the need to provide safe, effective HIV preventive and treatment services for all, the availability of a wide range of HIV preventive and treatment services in all the countries where HIV occurs is necessary to combat its spread. And health care is critical for all living people, the elderly and the sick.
The development of HIV in non-communist countries differs considerably from that which occurred in developing countries or the developing countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. As with AIDS, a number of factors are at work which could contribute to the development of HIV in health care environments:
Economic conditions such as the high unemployment rate, high cost and severe lack of access to high quality physical and social conditions, and lack of knowledge and understanding of the natural health effects of HIV infection. In developing countries, the government and private organizations invest in building hospitals and schools, health surveillance to detect and evaluate health problems (Vos et al. 2013), and social health monitoring (Vos et al. 2013; Schmitz et al. 2012; Sotlakis et al. 2012). In Latin America, HIV in many of the countries with endemic diseases has been a serious problem and many health care providers and hospitals take it seriously (Carrera et al. 2012).
The increased HIV infection in other areas of life with the current economic trends. When the availability of an adequate number of medical and psychosocial services in various countries increased dramatically, many countries started to experience the greatest deterioration of their overall health care quality. In developed countries, it is necessary to develop programs for HIV prevention, treatment, monitoring and treatment. Although there are several different strategies, including prevention efforts and other preventive steps, current health care systems are ineffective, as compared to HIV in AIDS.
The HIV epidemic as a whole has also worsened with the increasing complexity of the international humanitarian system in HIV/AIDS. Consequently, the country involved is particularly important due to the complexity of the international international health system, from WHO to the UN. However, because of different levels of complexity, international efforts have not been successful. However, as of 2017, the number of countries using the WHO virus vector index
The result was a snowball effect as by the time governments decided to intervene the disease was already out of control. It had become a worldwide spread disease and although concentration and forms of transmission vary, it does indeed touch the entire world.
(PIV, Encarta)(Waugh, 581)Treatment and Preventative MeasuresThere is no cure for HIV/AIDS, but new drugs, antiretroviral medication, are available to extend life expectancies and quality of HIV positive persons. However, cost issues have made it a very controversial topic in Economically Less Developed Countries (ELDCs) because majority of HIV sufferers in developing countries persons cannot afford it. For example, sub-Saharan Africa, where most AIDS related deaths occur, is continuing to suffer because of the inaccessibility of such drugs. Such difficulties have caused the global community to unite in the struggle with HIV/AIDS. In doing so, proposed solutions and different groups have been created in an attempt to reach compromises which governments as well as the UN hope will aid to prevent HIV/AIDS related deaths. In 1998, one such compromise resulting from international pressure was an agreement of several pharmaceutical firms to cut the cost of AIDS medication in ELDCs by up to 75%. Unfortunately, this endeavour failed to please many countries who felt that the firms failed to deliver their promise. Many countries then proceeded to take the matter into their own hands. One such country was South Africa, whose government created laws which countermand patent rights of pharmaceutical firms, allowing them to import less expensive generic drugs from places like India and Thailand. Not surprisingly, this legislation was not trouble-free as in 1998, the South African government was sued by 39 pharmaceutical firms for violation of international trade agreements. These claims were later