Health

Global Health and Children Affected with AIDS 2005

Issues of health and health care , both on individual and global levels are exceptionally important and significant problems of our contemporary society . AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome ) is one of the most terrible and devastating diseases of our times , which caused numerous deaths all around the world . Nowadays AIDS is among the most dangerous threats to global health and welfare . That is why the problem of prevention of further spread of this epidemic is extremely al especially in the regions of Sub Saharan

Africa , Caribbean and Asia where the amount of infected people exceeds 8 of the population , and the number of deaths runs into millions (Cichocki

Of course , AIDS affects children . According to the report of UNIADS , in 2004 about 2 .2 million children had AIDS , but this data may not reflect the real situation due to substantial lack of HIV monitoring devices in African regions , where 80 of AIDS affected people live (Berry ) This epidemic endangers health and well-being of thousands of children especially in developing countries . This is direct threat to normal development of the entire society . That 's why the most principle issue related with AIDS in terms of its influence over global health , is protection of children against this disease and treatment of those children , who are already affected with it

AIDS is caused by a virus , called HIV , or Human Immunodeficiency Virus This virus can be transmitted through transfusion of blood , during sexual intercourses , by sharing a needle when having injection , or from mother to child . Biologically , HIV attacks so called CD 4 T-cells of human body 's immune system , and then progressively damages or destroys them . Therefore , it drastically decreases or terminates the ability of human organism to resist infections (which are called opportunistic infections ) and certain types of cancer . That is why people , who have AIDS , may get infected by such bacteria and viruses , which usually do not cause any disease for healthy people . And very often in such cases prognosis for AIDS carriers can be life-threatening

Unfortunately , there is still no absolute cure for this disease , so numerous biology and medical specialists continue their studies and experiments . It was discovered that AIDS can not be transmitted by usual contacts , like sharing the meals or towels , using the same phone or swimming pool , doing handshake , etc . Speaking about children , in the majority of cases , they get infected with AIDS from their mothers during pregnancy , giving birth or breastfeeding . Also , many children can get infected through blood transfusion or (rarely ) when sharing the needle of same medical injectors . AIDS does not result in any physical or mental abnormality of a child and does not directly affect his /her normal physical development

Treatment and taking care about such children require a lot of tolerance , courage and efforts , from the side of both medical specialists and parents . Children affected by AIDS have to be provided with everything necessary to feel themselves equal with their peers and grow...