HIV/AIDS in the US and its polcies towards AIDS

HIV /AIDS Policies in the US

INTRODUCTION

Today , the 26 year old HIV /AIDS is becoming one of the major challenges facing health-care policymakers worldwide (HIV /AIDS Policy in the US 2006 . According to Collins (2007 , there are over 1 .5 million HIV infections and more than half a million deaths into HIV /AIDS afflicted in the United States

The acronym AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and describes the collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the severe damage of immune system caused by the HIV in humans . On the

other hand , HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus , a retrovirus that infects cells of the human immune system , and destroys or impairs their function (Fast facts about AIDS , n .d AIDS 2006

The introduction of HIV infection into the human body results to progressive depletion of the immune system , leading to immune deficiency . People who are described as immune-deficient are highly vulnerable to a wide range of infections known as opportunistic infections that take advantage of a weakened immune system . Hence , it is vital to measure the level of HIV in the body and the appearance of certain infections as these are used as indicators that HIV infection has progressed to AIDS (Fast facts about AIDS , n .d AIDS 2006 . With these , there are numerous policies and guidelines published to fight against HIV /AIDS

EVIDENCE OF THE PROBLEM

According to the Center of Disease Control (CDC , the cumulative number of estimated deaths in the U .S . of persons with AIDS through 2005 are 525 ,442 , including 4 ,865 children under the age of 13 and persons living with AIDS are 437 ,982 (HIV /AIDS in the United States , 2007

In the past two decades , the demographics of HIV /AIDS have changed moving from an illness that initially affected white gay men to a disease that increasingly affects men of color or African men who have sex with the same sex , women and older adults (Gorin , 2004

The prevalence rates of AIDS among African American men and women rose up by 150 percent between 1993 and 2001 compared with a 68 rate increase among white people . The rates of HIV /AIDS among communities of color were notably higher than those for white people when considering their percentage of the Americans only make up 12 of the U .S . population , however account for 76 .3 of individuals with AIDS . In addition , African American teenagers ages 13 to 19 make up only 15 of U .S . teenagers , but account for 61 of new AIDS cases reported among teenagers in 2001 (KFF , 2003a . This shows that African American or communities of color have high incidence of HIV /AIDS compared to white people both in the teenage or adult population

On the other hand , women represent an increasing proportion of new AIDS cases . The epidemiology shows that African American women represent a greater number of AIDS cases than white women . There were 7 ,113 newly reported AIDS cases among African American women in 2001...