The Effect Of HIV/AIDS On Families

In the USA, almost one and a quarter million people are living with AIDS and around 500,000 of these have died. HIV/AIDS thus affects the family members of both living and deceased AIDS patients. Moreover, around 40,000 new AIDS infections happen in the U.S. yearly. According to 2010 data, more than 39 million people were infected with AIDS internationally, and more than 25 million died. Thus, HIV/AIDS affected victims' families enormously (Michelle, 12-15). This paper discusses the effect of HIV/AIDS on families.

Prejudice towards people with HIV infection is very common not only by society but also by family members. Family members can play a vital role in helping the patient fight this deadly disease. AIDS is also affecting families on global scale, in sub-Saharan Africa 28,500,000 people live with AIDS. The primary risk groups for current HIV infection and AIDS are people who have unprotected sexual intercourse; injection drug users; men and women with multiple sexual partners; males who have sex with males; and children of infected mothers. In the era before the blood supply was carefully screened, transfusion-associated HIV infection was also common. (Dennis, 36-38)

Families first understand that being HIV-positive means that one has been exposed to HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) but may actually be symptom-free. After initial exposure, the virus may lie dormant for an average of seven to eight years before being reactivated. Once active, the virus progressively destroys the immune system, creating the patient defenceless to severe diseases and infections. Once the symptoms of AIDS are diagnosed, an individual has a life expectation of around 01 year on average.

Many patients also need family members counseling for staying free from AIDS. Often a crisis fear of HIV will bring a patient to counseling, and education as well as support is needed to keep the patient from making the same, risky mistakes again and again. The counsellors of AIDS victim's family members today must also be prepared to counsel the families of AIDS patients. In addition to the emotional support families can provide patients, they are also the most important source of prevention of AIDS. Families, for example, are becoming involved in educational programs designed to equip young people from getting involved in high-risk behavior, and the counselor can enlist their help in these efforts. (Panel, 152)

The infectious nature of HIV/AIDS also raises questions about family responsibilities to potential victims. Should doctors or health institutions inform others when a patient is diagnosed with HIV/AIDS? How should the need to prevent the spread of a deadly disease be balanced against a patient's right to privacy? Women may be particularly at risk from identification because their subordinate status in many places may subject them to social isolation or deprivation of home or property. Society often discriminates against people infected with HIV/AIDS. Discrimination may be driven by fear of infection, and education should be provided so that people know that the AIDS is not transmit by casual contact. The general stigma attached to homosexuals, drug users, ...