AIDS stands for Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome. A virus called HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus,
causes it. Since AIDS can be fatal, spreading from person to person, many
individuals in society tend to place a barrier on those who carry the virus and
the disease. Many social consequences are ignited in correlation to those that
are directly related to those who suffer from the illness. These social
barriers may include, loss of contacts with friends, family and other
relationships, appearance and employment.
For example, society has been confused to treat people with the disease
as a ‘bad’ person in society and because of this many individuals with AIDS don’t
have the same opportunities as others who don’t suffer the disease. In order to fix this discrimination
there are many different ways we can approach this global issue. One option is
to continue research on finding a cure for the disease. This could save
millions of lives across the planet. Another solution is continuing to raise
awareness about protection, but when advertising about this, commercials and
the media should inform that this is a disease that anyone, from all walks of
life can get AIDS. We must approach this issue from a sensible standpoint or
else we essentially feeding two problems, a growing disease and well as
discrimination.
I appreciated your comments regarding the stigma placed on those with HIV/AIDS, Erin! Many people don't realize that such discrimination exists. Just yesterday I was reading about a couple overseas who feared being subjected to the same discrimination you spoke about after the husband was identified as HIV positive. He quit his job after becoming sick and is now fearful he won't find work if his employer knows he has HIV. The wife is afraid of social discrimination, or at least awkward questions, when people ask why she isn't having any more children. I can't imagine what this couple, and hundreds of thousand like them, are going through. We can only hope that, through education, negative perspectives and discrimination against those with HIV/AIDS will end.
ReplyDeleteI think to solve the HIV/AIDS problem, we should really go after the prevention side. Though AIDS is manageable through medication, the treatment is extremely expensive and not always available or feasible to those in developing nations. For this reason I think we should focus on AIDS prevention because the disease is so preventable. Education on proper contraception and safe sex is absolutely key as well as the distribution of safe contraception. It's very similar to the three R's (reduce, reuse, recycle) Humans tend to focus on the recycle part when its the most ineffective by far. Like with AIDS if we curb the transmission of the disease then a treatment becomes less and less necessary.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting approach on HIV/Aids and discrimination. I never thought of the discrimination aspect of the disease, however, now that I think about it, discrimination could defintiely be very prominent with people affected by the disease. Through education about contraceptives, the spread of HIV/Aids can be stopped. Without an education about protection, there is not a lot of hope to combat the disease.
ReplyDeleteI like how you looked at an issue that comes with HIV/AIDS that is sometimes overlooked. The most important thing in life is our close relationships with friends and family! more people need to be educated about the causes and effects of HIV/AIDS in order to create and awareness and understanding on the topic. This way the sufferers will feel less isolated, and the general public knows more about how to prevent it.
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