Stopping HIV/AIDS

3/11/15

Jackson Kramer

For my senior year capstone I chose to discuss HIV/AIDS and to create a

campaign to stop the disease from spreading any more than it already has. I

discuss the facts about AIDS and clear up any misinformation or assumptions
about the disease. I talk about the trends involving the disease and how to
prevent getting the disease. I also talk about the history of the virus such as
where it came from and how it spread at the rate it did.

How can we as scientists, activists, and human beings prevent the spread
and infection of
HIV/AIDS so that we can live in a world where no one has to suffer from this
blight? My mission
for this project is to inform more people of the dangers, myths, and
suspicions around
HIV/AIDS.

HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus while AIDS stands for
Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome. One of the first pieces of information is that the two
are separate stages
of the same disease. HIV is the earlier, flu-like stage of the disease while
AIDS is used for the
latter, more severe symptoms. The disease does not kill you directly; instead
it weakens your
immune system to the point of becoming susceptible to other diseases such
as pneumonia,
tuberculosis, and certain cancers which in term are usually fatal.

AIDS was first observed in 1981 when large clusters of injection drug users
and homosexual
men were discovered to have a rare form of pneumonia and skin cancer,
only found in those

with weak immune systems, despite having no reason for having a low
immune system. Despite
cases occurring so frequently scientists tried to pass it off as a random
event. Later they called it
the 4H disease, due to the belief that it only affected homosexual,
hemophiliacs, Haitians,
and heroin users. It wasnt until the summer of 1982 that the CDC officially
named the disease
AIDS. The virus originated from west-central Africa from non-human
primates. Many species of
primates had viruses that caused their immune systems to decline. These
primates, as well as
many other native animals were killed and eaten by natives and as a result
the viruses evolved
to affect humans.

Of course everyone is susceptible to HIV however certain populations are

more likely to have
HIV/AIDS then others. The population that has the most people with HIV is
white men who
have sex with men with black men who have sex with men coming in a close
second. Despite
this HIV is more common in black Americans than any other ethnicities. The
majority of people
who get HIV contract it through sexual intercourse however a small
percentage of people get it
from used needles, with black Americans being the number one group
susceptible to this.

The largest occurrence of AIDS is in central and south Africa with some
countries having as high
rates as 26% of the population being HIV positive. This is due to the lack of
knowledge and lack
of resources when it comes to the matter of STDs and safe sex. There are
several instances in
which the people do not even know what HIV or AIDS is. With lack of
education and loosely
based educational laws many people are more susceptible to AIDS in this
region than anywhere
else in the world. Another factor for this is large rates of rapes in this region.
Due to the plague
of various armed conflicts rape has become a popular form of terrorism and
torture method.
These large waves of rapes cause steep inclines in AIDS percentage rates.

AIDS isnt just an epidemic on the other side of the world, in fact it is
probably more common in
the US than you expected. In Ohio alone 9 out of every 100,000 people are
diagnosed with
HIV/AIDS. This does not include the large number of people who do not know
they are HIV
positive which is estimated to be 1 in 3 people with AIDS. In total an
estimated 1.2 million
people in the United States are living with HIV/AIDS with only three hundred
thousand of these

people being women.

There are many different ways to become exposed to and contract HIV. The
most common way
is by having sexual intercourse with another person who is infected. HIV can
be transmitted
through vaginal fluid, semen, and anal fluids which causes the transfer
during sex. The second
most common way is by using unsterile or already used medical materials
such as needles.
Many heroin users often become HIV positive due to sharing needles due to
HIV also
contaminating blood. Women who become pregnant while HIV positive run a
high risk of
passing the virus onto the baby, whether it be from blood sharing or breast
feeding both can
give the child HIV. The least common way to get HIV is by receiving a
contaminated organ
during a transplant.

Although much more has been learned about HIV/AIDS there currently is no
known cure for it.
When it was first discovered the life expectancy was 15 years, however with
modern medicine
someone with HIV could have a lifespan as long as one without HIV. Despite
what some people

believe you cannot receive HIV from someone who doesnt have it. Many
celebrities have or
had HIV such as Magic Johnson, Freddie Mercury, and Liberace. Many
teenagers believe that
withdrawing the penis before ejaculation prevent the risk of HIV and other
STDs, however this
is not the case as during sex the penis might eject a small amount of semen
to clean the vagina
before ejaculation. A total of thirty five million people around the world are
living with
HIV/AIDS with 3.2 million of them being children. The area with the least
amount of HIV cases is
the Caribbean having only around a quarter of a million cases of HIV/AIDS .

There are several ways to prevent contamination with HIV. The first way is
complete abstinence
from sexual activities. Until you are sure that they do not have HIV or AIDS it
is heavily advised
that you do not have sexual intercourse with someone. Another way to
prevent contamination
is by using condoms during sexual intercourse. Although condoms work most
of the time there
is a small chance that the condom can slip or tear which could still cause
contamination.

It is important for people to know this information because HIV/AIDS could

affect them too.
One out of every four people diagnosed with HIV are minors under the age of
eighteen. One
out of every seven people who are HIV positive is unaware that they are
positive. Due to
hormones changes and fluctuations many teens are or want to be sexually
active and if they do
not know the dangers of safe sex they could be at risk of becoming HIV
positive. This is why I
want to start a campaign for safe sex and proper knowledge of HIV and AIDS.

Bibliography

"Welcome to AIDS.gov." Welcome to AIDS.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.

"HHS Will 'Hold Ourselves Accountable' On Plan To Lessen Health Disparities The KHN Interview." Black AIDS Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

"AIDS and HIV Health Center - WebMD." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 29 Jan.
2015.

"Report of the Consultation on the Treatment of HIV among Adolescents."

WHO. WHO, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.