AIDS in United States Of America

We have selected the disease of AIDS in the geographical area of USA for the purpose of this study. AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome which happens due to the infection caused by HIV or Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It is a disease which is very difficult to detect because it has very little symptoms in its early stages and initial symptoms are no more than reflective of symptoms of common cold. The virus has a very long dormant period and this makes the disease already well rooted in a patient when it is discovered with the onslaught of later symptoms which are commonly termed as AIDS (Stolley & Glass, 2009). The virus is transferred through multiple channels through body orifices as well as through blood transfusions. The virus can also transfer to a foetus during pregnancy or child birth. The main way to combat this disease is to prevent it from occurring in the first place. Safe sex practices and the use of screened blood is the key at avoiding the disease. There is currently no vaccination available for the virus nor is a viable cure present for the condition. The medication available for this disease is used for controlling the adverse symptoms of the disease and they only work at delaying the onset of complex symptoms of the disease and therefore only effective if the virus is detected at an early stage in a patient. Antiretroviral treatment is given to the patients of HIV/AIDS but has side effects and it is very expensive (Sharp & Hahn, 2011).

The country of United States is selected because it represents the example of a modern country affected with a disease which can have an effect on the world population in numerous ways and simply cannot be removed by helping the poor countries which generally prevail in infections. The epidemic of AIDS emerged from the social or well developed countries (Sheehan, 2008). AIDS therefore emphasizes on the presence of social problems and even problems in health systems of United States over the last three decades. The case of AIDS shows that how difficult it is to remove or reduce a disease which is based in certain social groups in a society and is related with different living and sexual practices of the people (CDC, 2013).

HIV/AIDS appeared in the USA in 1970s. It was introduced in the country through the entry of an infected immigrant in the country. Homosexual communities at that time were having a rare cancer and later that cancer spread into other social communities as well the United States. The disease however was not specific to gay people rather it was more apparent in them due to unsafe sex practices. The Centres of Disease Control and Prevention or CDC named the condition as AIDS in 1982. Haemophilic patients were also a target of this disease because they suffered from contaminated blood transfusions (CDC, 2013).

There are currently over a million people who are living the in the United States with the disease. It is estimated that 16% of them are not even aware of the disease. Around 600,000 deaths have taken place due to AIDS related problems according to the collected data. USA is the world’s largest fund provider in the global fight against the HIV. It is however facing around 50,000 new AIDS cases each year (CDC, 2014). People in the country still do not have common access to methods of HIV testing and prevention. The new cases ensure that the constant supply of HIV infections take place in a continuous cycle. The country has now declared a comprehensive plan to combat the disease by using a three pronged strategy. The first aim is to reduce new infections, the second is to increase the access of health services to people having HIV and the third aim is to reduce HIV related health problems.