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An analysis of the main reasons for the continued spread of HIV

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An analysis of the main reasons for the continued spread of HIV
An analysis of the main reasons for the continued spread of HIV
HIV, a virus only discovered in the late 1970s, has now become the most lethal virus around the world (UNAIDS, 2008). Scientifically HIV is a kind of virus which can destroy human’s immune system. Then, without defense of the body, other virus can easily infect body and ultimately results in death (WHO, 2013). Till the end of 2012, 35.3 millions of people live with HIV (WHO, 2013) and large quantities of family members suffer from the pain. Yet such a lethal disease only has three simple transmissions, through unprotected sex, blood, and maternal-neonatal pregnancy. However, the high mortality rate suggests that there is an urgent need to investigate deeper causes of HIV dissemination. In the following paragraphs, the continued spreading rate will be analyzed through three perspectives: sociology, economy, and policy. Each part has its specific reasons for HIV prevalence, while some of those are isolated and some are integrated with others. Together, those factors make high prevalence rate of AIDS epidemic.
Among all the reasons in sociology, lack of education is considered a leading cause of AIDS prevalence, which mainly includes inadequate knowledge, misunderstandings of AIDS, and “not happen to me” mentality. Firstly, inadequate education of AIDS increases the risk of HIV infection. Research found that a lost year of education can increase the risk of HIV for 7% (UNAIDS, 2008). Owing to lack of basic knowledge about AIDS transmissions, prevention methods are not accessible to people. As been illustrated by UNAIDS (2008), uneducated citizens tend to have no condom intercourses, giving rise to higher rate of sperm transmission. Secondly, misunderstanding of HIV brings about more unethical and unscrupulous actions. Taking South- Africa for example, in some rural districts, men regard HIV as a curable disease by having sex with a virgin (Johnson and Budlender, 2002). With this thought, natives


References: Johnson, L. and Budlender, D. (2002) HIV risk factors: A review of the demographic, socio-economic, biomedical and behavioral determinants of HIV prevalence in South Africa. [Accessed: Oct, 20th, 2013] Available at: https://www.commerce.uct.ac.za/Research_Units/CARE/Monographs/Monographs/mono08.pdf Mazibuko, F. (2000) ‘Drugs and young people: Prevention and therapeutic models of intervention within the context of social development’, International conference on social welfare, Cape Town, South Africa. [Accessed: Oct, 23th, 2013] Available at: http://www.icsw.org/global-conferences/mazibuko.htm Prüss-Üstün, A. and Corvalán, C. (2006) Preventing disease through healthy environments: Towards an estimate of the environmental burden of disease. Geneva, World Health Organisation Press. [Accessed: Oct, 30th, 2013] Available at: http://www.who.int/quantifying_ehimpacts/publications/preventingdisease.pdf USAID (2009) Global Health Perspectives Series: How will the global economic crisis impact the health of the world’s poor? [Accessed: Sep, 20th, 2013] Available at: http://transition.usaid.gov/locations/asia/documents/Health-and-Impact-of-Economic-Crisis-4-13-final-duproof0413.pdf UNAIDS (2008) Addressing societal causes of HIV risk and vulnerability, 2008 Report on the global aids epidemic. [Accessed: Sep, 18th, 2013] Available at: http://data.unaids.org/pub/globalreport/2008/jc1510_2008_global_report_pp63_94_en.pdf UNAIDS (2010) Report on the global AIDS epidemic. Geneva, UNAIDS. [Accessed: Sep, 23th, 2013] Available at: http://data.unaids.org/pub/globalreport/2008/jc1510_2008globalreport_en.zip United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) (2006) Guide to the implementation of the world programme of action for youth. [Accessed: Sep, 25th, 2013] Available at: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/documents/wpay_guide.pdf United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) (2012) World drug report. [Accessed: Sep, 24th, 2013] Available at: http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/WDR2012/WDR_2012_web_small.pdf World Health Organization (2013) Statistics about HIV/AIDS [Accessed: Nov, 20th, 2013] Available at: http://www.who.int/hiv/en/
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