“The Age of AIDS” by frontline is an apt study for two reasons. First it details the process of identifying a disease which was new and mysterious; second in doing so it gives us insight on how epidemiology plays an important role. This gives us an understanding of epidemiology and its basic concepts in force while executing this role. The objectives of epidemiology of identifying the cause of disease, in this case AIDS, extent to which it has penetrated. Finding records for similar cases for further investigation which would help in finding the origins of the disease. Evaluating preventive and therapeutic measures, in this case the drug “AZT” was monitored and after sometime was found ineffective, because the HIV virus had formed immunity to this drug. This was possible to know in short span of time due to accumulation of data from all the test cases and assessing them regularly. One other important objective of epidemiology was indirectly explained, the objective of providing foundation for developing public policy. The program implicitly tells how ignorance from government led to transforming a disease with no cure, to a disease with no hope. There is a difference in not having a cure and not having hope. When there is no cure, it can be due lack of medical advance, which in due time might and will catch up, to bring forth better preventive measure and possible cure. Now not having a hope is not as simple as it sounds. It implies being alone, reduced to utter dejection from society and feeling helplessness. In early days, neglected by government to avoid controversies, detested by religious groups, feared by masses for possible chance of infection, people with AIDS were reduced to such helplessness and utter dejection, which I am sure, might not have any equal. This was possible not only because of indifference from government, but is also reflected in ignorance of CDC by administration and also discrimination not just by conservatives but even by the then…
This disorder is known to be caused by family stresses, parental modeling, cultural influences and biological factors. Treatments for this disorder range from medications, a firm relationship with…
“Every 9.5 minutes someone in the United States is infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).” According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), there are approximately 1.5 million people living with HIV, and one out of five is not aware they are infected (CDC, 2011). The first documented case of HIV was from a blood sample retrieved in 1959 from an individual residing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There is no information on how this individual became infected or how it was believed to have arrived in the United States in 1969. There are a number of stories on how this life-threatening disease came about and how it made it to the United States. There is also a story of hunters eating a contaminated chimpanzee in the western part of Africa. Recent studies show HIV may have traveled from monkeys to humans as far back as the late 1800s.…
In the modern society of present-day most are unafraid of war and crisis partly because war and crisis are easier to understand than HIV. With the information available today the public is still afraid to embrace the problem and stand for the fight against the disease and the discriminations involved with the infected.…
This paper analyzes the documentary film "Secrets of the dead-Mystery of the Black Death". This film discusses about the Black Death, a disease resulting from a combination of bubonic and pneumonic plague, which killed millions of Europeans during the Middle Ages. Researchers in this video clarify the origins of this pandemic/how it spread, the damage it caused on the whole European continent, the theory explaining how some people managed to escape the Black Death and the relationship between the disease and today's most dangerous virus: the HIV. The team of experts in this film is composed of historians, geneticists, a microbiologist, a virologist and even a gastroenterologist. Thus, the combination of historical and scientific knowledge will answer the questions about the past that people have always asked.…
In the 1980s, the words “AIDS” and “HIV” were not on the radar for most of American society. The words were just something people might occasionally hear when someone passed away, but these the deaths almost never occurred close to home. America would quickly become confronted with the threat of AIDS as a very serious health epidemic. If one were to ask someone during the 1980s their thoughts, they might reply with a vague response that AIDS was just a marginal disease affecting a remote section of the world. Discovery of AIDS was not the biggest news that happened in America, for they saw it more as an outside threat that they would not believe that AIDS to spread into the United States.…
Central Idea Restatement:The history of AIDS is not well known, but now we hope you all have a better idea what the virus is.…
Outbreaks of diseases, both past and present, have greatly impacted the world. Between the number of victims and lasting social impacts, these vicious diseases have become widely known throughout society. Two of these ruthless diseases are the Black Death and AIDS. Despite these incidents having occurred over six-hundred years apart, they swept over the world very similarly, leaving millions of people infected, or dead.…
Many factor are related to this disease such as social and cultural ,economic, Environmental and others..…
In today’s society there is an illness that is very common. The virus is called Human Immunodeficiency Virus also known as (HIV) This virus can also lead to another disease Acquired Immune Deficiency Virus (AIDS). The Human Immunodeficiency Virus was found in 1981. Which was reconized in west Africa. When citizens started getting ill. During the 1990’s research for the illness was done. Where they found treatments to slow down the virus. It was also discovered that (HIV) could also lead to a virus called (AIDS) which was more destructive to the human central nervouse system which is also known as (CNS). In 1986 the second virus was found it was isolated in africa. In 1987 the first case of the human immunodeficiency virus 2. Was found in the United States Of America. Between 1990- 1992 approximatley 14,110 deaths were reported in the United States Of America also between that time another disease was found called the dementia. Between 1996-1998 it decreased by 10.5 cases per 1000 people. In 2007 35,962 cases were found which brought the…
Princess Diana, the Princess of Wales. Mother of Prince William and Prince Harry, but known in the media as the princess to throw herself out there to help for the better. A true role model and a hero to others. She was said to leave a sense of vulnerability if you were to ever meet her. A princess is known for helping of course, but our dear Princess Diana has gone beyond.…
In 1985, President Ronald Reagan decided it was appropriate to publicly announce the new virus AIDS that could not be cured once caught. The public automatically reacted with an antiretroviral drug. The drug does not cure AIDS but it reduces the risk of dying. The cost of the antiretroviral drug in the United States is averaged around ten thousand dollars per patient. In Africa half of the people who are infected are living in poor communities and the other half don’t know there are drugs because their leaders don’t provide them with a proper education on the…
Even with current treatments and vaccinations, an estimated 36,000 people die, and more than 200,000 are hospitalized, each year by the seasonal flu, in just the United States alone (http://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/10-flu-myths). The continued battle against HIV has seen an estimated 36 million deaths worldwide since its discovery in 1981 (http://www.who.int/gho/hiv/epidemic_status/deaths_text/en/). These are just two incidences of the effects viruses have had on human population. The global effect that every strain of virus has had on the population is innumerable. But, how have viruses continued to cause worldwide destruction, despite the attempts at their…
Social reasons – children without suitable role models from whom they can imitate which can then lead to poor lifestyle decision making in the future…
feeling like things are out of control in their lives is a major reason of developing this illness. The ways in which families interact together is another source...…