Prevention of AIDS by Lifting the Stigma Essay Assignment paper
Prevention of AIDS by Lifting the Stigma Essay Assignment paper
Imagine living in the 1980’s when the HIV/AIDS epidemic started, having HIV back then was a death sentence, and that is how it was seen by everyone in the general public. Then, over time medicine and treatments would become more available, and people suffering from HIV would be able to seek help instead of being left to slowly perish. HIV or its more developed version of it known as AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease, but can also be spread through the exchange of bodily fluids such as semen, urine, and blood. Some big misconceptions about AIDS is that it really cannot be spread with saliva or sweat. The way the virus works is that it attacks the body’s T cell count, which is in control of the immune system. Once without an immune system, the body is pretty much vulnerable to any disease and the body cannot fight it. Revolutionary medicine was then developed to combat the HIV virus, which makes living with HIV better. In order to prevent the spread of HIV, the general public needs to become more aware of the false stigma surrounding the virus, parents and administrations need to do a better job of educating their students, and offer alternative help to people who are at risk of getting the virus through the use of injectable drugs.Prevention of AIDS by Lifting the Stigma
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Prevention of AIDS by Lifting the Stigma Essay Assignment paper
One way HIV could be significantly reduced is by further educating the public, in order to destigmatize common misconceptions of the virus. Some easy misconceptions to make about HIV are very easy to make. One misconception of HIV is that it can be spread through saliva. Unless there is an open cut on the infected person, then there should be a very little chance of contracting the virus. Another misconception is the fact that HIV positive moms can still give their babies a chance of having HIV. Most people do not know that AIDS can be transmitted that way. HIV also made it easier to be able to hate on the gay community because in the 80’s it was believed that only gay people could get HIV and that was God’s way of punishing them. Realistically, everyone was able to contract it, but it was the lack of knowledge. In an article called, Stigma and HIV: The Current Situation by Kyle Cabarini, an HIV and sexual health research nurse states, “Poor knowledge of HIV has been found to be a major precursor of stigma and it has been identified that despite positive support for its inclusion within the learning curriculum, there is a lack of education on HIV.” (Carabini, P. 57). What this quote is trying to say is one of the major causes of the prejudice and stigma that people with HIV face is due to the lack of education towards the general public. The general public has a fear of contracting HIV from people who are positive for the virus. If the local governments tried to educate people more, the public would be aware of the safety procedures and therefore be better equipped with the information to handle someone who has HIV and be able to peacefully coexist.
This quote also talks about how the general public still wants to be educated on the subject further. Cabarini is not the only medical professional to come to this conclusion. Ronald O. Valdiserr, and David R. Holtgrave both deputy directors of the Division of STD/HIV Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control in their study called Ending America’s HIV Epidemic: Why the National HIV/AIDS Strategy Still Matters they state, “a recent analysis of over six hundred partners of HIV-positive individuals revealed that African American and Hispanic partners, both men and women, were less aware of PrEP, compared to partners who were white.” (Valdiserri and Holtgrave, P. 2033). This quote talks about a sample of six hundred partners, and how the minorities such as African Americans and Hispanics have less knowledge that there is medicine that the partner of an HIV-positive person can take in order to decrease their chances of getting the virus from their partner, also known as PrEP. This is important because it goes to show the lack of education on HIV that Hispanic and African-American people are subjected to. If PrEP was just common sense and known to all people and not just limited to a certain population of people, then we would be able to see the reduction of HIV positive populations.Prevention of AIDS by Lifting the Stigma
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