HIV/AIDS
Transmission
Factors contributing to spread
Impacts of HIV/AIDS
Groups Vulnerable to HIV/AIDS
Definition
What is HIV?
Human Immunodeficiency virus is a virus that attacks the cells of the immune system by destroying white blood cells that are critical to fighting infections. Over time the body loses its ability to fight infections, leading to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome(AIDS)
What is AIDS?
AIDS is a disease in which there is a severe loss of the body's cellular immunity.
Girls and Young Women
Lack the power to refuse unsafe sex, choose their partners and influence sexual behaviour
Direct or Indirect Contact
Blood or bodily fluids
The most common form of HIV/AIDS transmission is through sexual contact with an HIV-positive person. If a person already has Sexually Transmitted Disease(STD), the risk of infection is even higher since STD weakens the immune system.
Sharing of needles.
Blood transfusions
Transmitted from a pregnant mother to her baby.
Biologically more vulnerable to infection
Children
People who participate in risk-taking behaviours
Infected through their mother during pregnancy, labour or breastfeeding
Through injecting Drug Use
Spread through?
Social Factors
Social Stigma
Lack of Education
Lifestyle Choices
Lapses in Medical Practice
Economic Factors
Vice Trade
Mobility
Social Impacts
Orphan Crisis
Lower life expectancy & higher infant mortality Rate
Economic Impacts
Cost of health care
Loss of Productivity resulting in slower economic growth
Relocation Diffusion
Introduction of a disease to a location outside of its current geographic range
Often occurs when a community migrates from one location to another
- Discrimination
- Refused access to health care facilities
- Rejection by family or community
- Expelled from school or denial from housing
- Unaware of how diseases is transmitted and do not know how to protect themselves
- Cultural Practices that keep girls from knowing about sex and sexuality till marriage
- Mistakes, corruption and negligence associated with medical practices
- Drug injection or sharing needles
- Refusal to use condoms
- Drug and alcohol intoxication affects judgement and can lead to unsafe medical practices, which put people at risk for getting HIV or transmitting it to someone else
Refers to?
Movement of people from one place to another, often for work reasons, in search of better work opportunities
- Separated from families for a long duration of time
- Live in a foreign place and feel socially excluded, lonely
- Involved in Risk-taking behaviours
E.g Miners & Truck Drivers
- Tourism
- take risks that they do not take in their home country
refers to?
Business activities such as the involvement in illegal drugs or commercial sex work
These women usually have limited education and job training
- Find employment in jobs with low pay and no job security
- Do commercial sex work
Refers to?
Situations in which large numbers of children lose their parents due to HIV/AIDS
- Orphans usually vulnerable to forced labour, forced into the sex industry and recruitment as child soldiers
Medication: Antiretroviral drugs
- Have to be taken daily for a lifetime
-Expensive ( E.g in some LDCs, cost $69 -$900per year )
Mothers with HIV AIDS
- Receive antenatal treatment, which is treatment prior to delivery, to reduce the risk of passing on HIV/AIDS
Shortage of skilled labour in the workforce
Employees with HIV/AIDS absent from work
Lack of funds result in less effective education system, resulting in lower skilled work force
A lower skilled workforce deters foreign investment and hinder economic growth
Challenges
Social Challenges
Difficulties in HIV detection
Social Stigma
Lifestyle Choices
Economic Challenges
High Cost Of Antiretroviral Therapy
Population across borders and along highways for work