AIDS

Aids

Aids

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, is the final, life-threatening stage of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus, which is transmitted from person to person sexually, through contact with blood (mainly via equipment used to inject illicit drugs and, rarely, via medical uses of blood), and perinatally (from mother to foetus or newborn during pregnancy, labour, and delivery, or after birth through breast-feeding).

Spatial Patterns

People Living With AIDS (2006)

Regions

Estimate

Australia & New Zealand

15,000

Caribbean

420,000

East Asia & Pacific

1,000,000

Eastern Europe & Central Asia

1,000,000

Latin America

1,500,000

North Africa & Middle East

500,000

North America

950,000

South & Southeast Asia

5,600,000

Sub-Saharan African

28,500,000

Western Europe

550,000

Global total

40,000,000+

From the map and the table, we can see that the prevalence of AIDS isn't evenly or randomly spread around the world, but has certain patterns. It is more common in third world countries, especially India, Africa and South American countries. Although 2/3rd of the world's AIDS patients are in Africa, there is a wide variation in Africa itself, from below 10,000 in Tunisia and Morocco, to 5 million in South Africa. There are more than 40 million people worldwide living with AIDS, 95% of whom are in developing countries. Although AIDS is prevalent in developing countries, it is also present in high levels in certain developed countries like USA. Others, like those in Europe and Australasia enjoy very low levels of AIDS patients.

This is because AIDS had been brought under control in the developing countries through political action, intensive education, and expensive drug therapy. Some of the hardest hit areas are in Africa, with 2.5 million people dying in the Sub-Saharan region alone. Populations are being hit hard in countries like South Africa, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. There are many reasons for AIDS being more common in developing regions like India and Africa, such as:

Lack of family-planning and sex education

Lesser availability of contraceptives

Religious beliefs prevent people from using contraceptives

Male-dominated society causes inequality for women, and often, they have to obey if the man demands intercourse

Lots of cases of rape in lawless or war-torn regions, which promotes the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)

Poverty causes a lot of prostitution, which also promotes the quick spreading of STDs

Poverty and illiteracy promotes use of drugs, and the syringes used by drug addicts often are infected

Lack of proper medical facilities and sterilised instruments might result in infection during blood transfusions.

Impacts and Consequences

Social Consequences

Shame and social ostracism are the main problems patients of AIDS and their relatives face. The first impact is the shock of discovering a person is HIV positive. This often leads to rejection, isolation and abuse. In addition to the distress this brings, discrimination by employers, insurance companies and others can cause financial problems. Illness in a family usually leads to loss of income. This may be because a breadwinner dies or is too sick to work, or because a family member leaves work to care for the sick relative. At the same time, household spending increases because money and time is spent on caring for the sick family member.

Young girls may drop out of school to tend to ailing ...