Report About The HIV Disease

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Abstract

This report is about the HIV disease. The causes and effects, distribution, and the risk factors of this disease are analyzed critically. The first part of the report is the induction, which provides a brief overview of the disease.

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It also explains the importance of covering this disease. HIV is a common disease that claims over one million lives every year and also has devastating economic and social impacts. Furthermore, this report explains the distribution and the preference of the HIV disease in sub-Saharan Africa and the southern United States counties critically.

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The findings of the report are that over 40% of the people living in areas with a high distribution of the disease are unaware of their HIV status.

Additionally, there are higher infections among men than women. The determinants or risk factors of the disease are commercial sex workers, unemployment, poverty, women heading families urbanicity, and higher populations of African – American in the USA. The conclusion highlights that implementation of strategies like the sex work policy and distribution of condoms is likely to reduce the distribution of the disease. Furthermore, the involvement of universities such as HBCUs will promote HIV disease education hence reducing its infection rates. These researches are based on five scholarly articles regarding the HIV disease.

Introduction

HIV is one of the global diseases that affects the intimacy of people. The HIV disease is also known as AIDS. HIV is a viral disease that affects the immunity of human beings by attacking white blood cells. As a result, the infected patient is vulnerable to all types of diseases and infections because the body’s defense mechanism is weak.

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The disease is mainly transmitted through the exchange of body fluids between an infected person and a non-infected person. The common mode of transmission is through sexual intercourse. So far, there are anti-viral medicines that are used to enable the body to produce antibodies that fight the HIV antigens, hence boosting immunity. So far, the disease doesn’t have any cure.

This report focuses on the HIV disease because it has psychological, financial, health, and social impacts on the infected patient as well as other people. Furthermore, statistics indicate that the disease claims have claimed over one million lives annually around the globe. There is also an estimation of 1.8 million new infections. Notably, the majority of infected persons are women, and they are about 51%. The total number of patients living with HIV was 36.7 million in 2017(Ghosn et al., .2018). Testing of the HIV status is not very common among the African countries, hence the increased cases of new infections in the region. Therefore, this report is meant to discuss the distribution, risk factors, and effects of the HIV disease.

Cause and effects

HIV disease is prevalent in most communities across Southern Africa, especially the vulnerable communities. As stated in the introduction, the main mode of transmission from one person to another is through unprotected sexual intercourse with an infected person. Other forms of the disease transmission include sharing of sharp objects, kissing, and mother to child transmission. The impacts of the HIV disease are very devastating to the patient as well as their families. One of the major effects is that it's the leading cause of untimely deaths of middle-aged people. Often patients lying in this category are young parents. Therefore, their deaths result in orphans who sometimes are infected by the disease. This impact is mainly felt in sub-Saharan Africa.

The second impact of the HIV disease is the economic impact. It affects the economics of the regions and countries where it is prevalent negatively. First, governments spend a lot of money to purchase antiretroviral drugs as well as therapy. This money would be used in other development projects such as the development of infrastructure and provision of basic utilities such as water and a good sewage system. Another economic impact is that HIV disease reduces the number of workforces in a country. In other words, the households reduce; hence some families are left without any head of the family, or females are forced to take up the responsibility of providing for the entire family. The orphans left behind only survive on the mercies of the well-wishers or their elderly grandparents.

The fourth impact is that the family of the infected patient spend a lot of resources seeking medication and other essential needs. The prevalence of disease also has social impacts. For instance, HIV disease causes patients to suffer from stigmatization and neglect. The stigma also spreads to other family members of the affected family. As a result, family disputes arise hence the interference with the peace. In other words, the prevalence of the HIV disease affected the health of the particular patient, economic, and social status of the affected region.

Findings

The distribution of HIV disease varies from one region to another due to various factors. Some of the determinant factors for the HIV disease include unemployment, females being heads of households, poverty, sex workers, and race. Globally the areas with the highest HIV disease prevalent cases are associated with high levels of poverty and unemployment. Notably, unemployment makes people identify other means of finding income. One of such methods is sex work. Furthermore, due to poverty, often, the people engage in unprotected sex hence facilitating transmission of the disease. Another characteristic of the poor and unemployed communities is the increasing abuse of drugs, including drugs that are abused through injections. It is important to note that idleness is a factor the promotes drug abuse in the community.

Another underlying determinant factor for HIV prevalence is the population of black communities, especially in the United States. For instance, the 69 counties found in South U.S have higher cases of HIV disease prevalence than any other part of the USA. For instance, 69 counties in the south have 40% of the African American communities, and the average prevalence in the region is 615.5 per 100,000 persons (Sutton et al.,2017). This average preference is two times more the national HIV prevalence, which is 295.1 per 100,000 persons. In other words, black communities are at a higher risk of contracting HIV aid.

Additionally, under-resourced medical care in the black American communities also contributed to the high HIV prevalence distribution in the region. Some of the HIV patients do not receive antiretroviral therapy on time. One of the ways of reducing the effect of HIV in the region is involved in the HBCU’s fight against the spread of HIV in the region.

One of the distribution patterns of HIV disease is that it is more prevalent in men than women in various regions. The researchers discovered that in the regions with the highest prevalence of the disease like Chiradzuu in Malawi, Eshowe in South Africa and Ndhiwa in Kenya, more men are infected than women. Particularly, the study portrayed that 4113 (21.7%) out of the 18,991 men that participated in the study are tested HIV positive (Chihana et al.,2019). Additionally, this study expressed the three regions have 15.3% of men and 7.5% of women living with HIV. It was also found out that there is a tendency of the people living with HIV in prevalent areas fear to know their HIV status. For example, nearly 40% of the population in the three listed areas are unaware of their HIV status (Chihana et al.,2019). However, their regions in sub-Saharan Africa indicate that the disease is prevalent more in women. For example, a study conducted in 2016 indicated that 51% of the HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa were more prevalent among women (Ghosn et al.,2018).

The presence of commercial sex workers also influences the distribution of HIV disease. In other words, sex workers are more vulnerable to contracting HIV infections than any other category of people. In order to curb the distribution of the HIV disease, some countries have established the sex workers' policy in Europe. Seventeen countries in Europe have implemented the policy. Consequently, they are registering lower rates of HIV infections among the sex workers (Reeves et al.,2017). It was also discoursed that the HIV prevalence is high among sex workers in countries without the sex work policy. Implementation of the sex work policy promotes the protection of the sex workers' health though encouraging them to engage in safe sex. Additionally, countries will need the sex work policy to monitor the sex workers; hence the sex workers rarely engaged in drug abuse through injections. All these activities have contributed to lower HIV prevalence distribution in Europe and the USA.

The HIV prevalence distribution is also affected by advances and growth of the gay communities. Men having sex with men are more predisposed to the HIV infections that other categories of sex partners. For instance, there are 7.62% of infections among gay men in the Netherlands (Bom et al.,2019). As a result, gay men are encouraged to participate in protected sex to normalize the patterns if HIV infections. The use of condoms is an effective measure of reducing the cases of the disease in the region. According to Bom et al. (2019), there were 42 HIV infection cases among gay men in Europe against the 262 and 394 new infections of chlamydia and gonorrhea, respectively. Therefore, this research found out that the use of condoms reduces the rate of HIV infections among gay men hence flattening the curve of the HIV disease infections.

Conclusion

This report is very important as far as the understanding of HIV disease is concerned. First, the report educates that HIV disease is more prevalent in the sub-Saharan countries and other poor regions of the globe. This information is helpful in the sense that it can be used to develop policies likely to lead to the growth of the economy of the region. Once the rates of poverty and unemployment in the region are reduced, the infection rates of the HIV disease will also reduce. Secondly, the information can be adopted by governments to strengthen the implementation of policies like sex work policy and the distribution of condoms.

The report has well indicated that countries with sex work policy have lower rates of HIV infections than countries without the policy. Another policy is that condoms should freely be issued to gay communities to reduce infections. Furthermore, the free distribution of condoms is a cost-effective strategy that reduces the rate of new HIV infections. Thirdly people of color and men need to be educated about the transmissions of HIV disease as well as ART because they are the most vulnerable groups. Finally, this information can be used to establish strategies for reducing the social and economic effects of HIV prevalence in society.

Annotated Bibliography

Ghosn, J., Taiwo, B., Seedat, S., Autran, B., & Katlama, C. (2018). HIV.Vol.,392, 685-687.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31311-4.
Ghosn, J., Taiwo, B., Seedat, S., Autran, B., & Katlama, C. (2018) article mainly focused on reviewing the advances and the challenges associated with AIDS-free world goal. This study cope was mainly sub-Saharan Africa, where the infections and impacts of HIV disease are intensive as compared to other parts of the world. Furthermore, the authors also discuss the antiretroviral strategies which are developing towards the process of decreasing HIV-AIDS drug burden. According to Ghosn et al. (2018), the main challenges experienced are inflammation persistence, HIV reservoirs existence as well as lack of effective immunity against HIV results to the limitation of successful development of HIV vaccine.
Additionally, some of the advances made are Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) and Combination Antiretroviral Therapy, commonly known as (CART). This article is very detailed, and the data used in the article is from secondary sources. The report is based on facts, and it uses a qualitative research design to develop its arguments. Generally, this report is very educative about HIV- disease.
Box, R. J., Van Der Linden, K., Matser, A., Poulin, N., van der Loeff, M. F. S., Bakker, B. H., & van Boven, T. F. (2019). The effects of free condom distribution on HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in men who have sex with men. BMC infectious diseases, 19(1), 222.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12879-019-3839-0
In the era of gays, the advances made to deal with HIV disease infections seem to be less effective. According to Bom et al. (2019) distribution of condoms to the men having sex with other men is an effective way of reducing the number of HIV distribution among gay communities. Bom et al. (2019) conducted research sensitivity analyses across Netherlands gay Saunas and gay Bars. The results of their research indicated that the distribution of Condoms to the public sex places resulted in decreasing in HIV new infections among men by 7.62%.
During the time of the study, only 42 HIV new infections were recorded while the chlamydia and gonorrhea cases were 262 and 394, respectively, among the men having sex with other men (Bom et al.,2019). The study of the infections of chlamydia and gonorrhea was used as the control experiment. Bom et al. (2019) also indicated that the distribution of condoms to public places is cost-effective because 5.51 pounds is saved for every one pound spent on condom distribution. This article is founded on quantitative research methods because it involves data analyses.
Chihana, M. L., Huerga, H., Van Cutsem, G., Ellman, T., Goemaere, E., Wanjala, S., ... & Davies, M. A. (2019). Distribution of advanced HIV disease from three high HIV prevalence settings in Sub-Saharan Africa: a secondary analysis data from three population-based cross-sectional surveys in Eshowe (South Africa), Ndhiwa (Kenya), and Chiradzulu (Malawi). Global health action, 12(1), 1679472. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16549716.2019.1679472
Chihana et al. (2019) outline that sub-Saharan Africa has the highest distribution of HIV disease. To understand the distribution Chihana et al., (2019) study mainly focused on three places in the region that have the highest prevalence of the disease, which are Ndhiwa in Kenya, Eshowe in South Africa, and Chiradzulu in Malawi. This research used a quantitative research design where the participants are randomly selected, and they were aged between 15 and 59 years. The results indicated that out of the 18,991 men that participated in the study, 4113 (21.7%) tested positive for the virus. The HIV disease was more prevalent among men than women, where 15.3% of males tested positive, while 7.5% of women tested positive (Chihanaet al.,2019).
Furthermore, the study indicated that 62.7% of the sample population knew their HIV status. Only 40.3% of these patients were under the ART program, while 29.6% of the population that had tested for HIV positive more than 6 months are under ART. Chihana et al.,(2019) study conclusion were that nearly 40% of the population in the HIV prevalent regions are unaware of their HIV status. Yet, one out every ten individuals have advanced HIV disease symptoms.
Reeves, A., Steele, S., Stuckler, D., McKee, M., Amato-Gauci, A., & Semenza, J. (2017). Is sex work policy a determinant of HIV prevalence among sex workers? Ecological regression analysis of 27 European countries. The Lancet HIV, 4(3), e134-e140. https://arro.anglia.ac.uk/701092/
Reeves et al., (2017) article show that the greatest risk of HIV disease is the sex workers across the globe. Furthermore, this study communicates that countries with well structured and implementable sex work policies have lower HIV disease prevalence among sex workers than countries without the sex work policy. Reeves et al., (2017) conducted their study in 27 countries across Europe and discovered that the 17 countries that had implemented sex work policy had lower HIV infections among sex workers. On the other hand, the ten countries without the sex work policy had higher infections.
Other findings of the study were that criminalizing sex workers facilitates other practices like drug abuse inform of injections. Drug injections facilitate the transmission of HIV due to the sharing of the injection needles among the sex workers who are drug abusers. The research method used during the data collection was sampling, and their cross-sectional ecological regression models for the analyses. Notably, the research was expensive, and therefore it was funded by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Sutton, M. Y., Gray, S. C., Elmore, K., & Gaul, Z. (2017). Social determinants of HIV disparities in the southern united states and counties with historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), 2013–2014. PloS one, 12(1). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5249223/
According to Sutton, M. Y., Gray, S. C., Elmore, K., & Gaul, Z. (2017) article, there is a high prevalence of the HIV disease among black Americans living in the Southern United States than other races like white and Hispanic. The results of the study indicated that there are 69 counties in the Southern U.S, and the region has 40% of the population being African-Americans. Furthermore, the HIV prevalence average in the region is 615.5 per 100,000 persons. This prevalence is two times higher than the average USA HIV prevalence, which is 295.1 per 100,000(Sutton et al.,2017).
The determinants of the high levels of HIV infections are poverty, a higher percentage of black communities, women being head of households, and unemployment. Urbanicity is also a risk factor in the region Sutton, M. Y., Gray, S. C., Elmore, K., & Gaul, Z. (2017) also discovered that the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) could play a beneficial role in developing structural interventions and to strengthen HIV policies in the region hence reducing the prevalence. The study used multivariate and bivariate linear regression models to analyses the data. Other determinants that were considered other than race were rates of primary care providers and owners of the housing units.