DEVELOPMENT
      When talking about development, which most definitely affects how many disease and what type of disease a country gets, what is taken into consideration? According to UN's HDI (human development index), the things taken into consideration are life expectancy, the way you live life, and illiteracy rate are what determines how develop a country is.
      Lets look at those aspects in Africa. In Africa, the life expectancy varies from country to country, but it is said that the average life expectancy is somewhere between 40-60. This is very low compared to the 70s of other countries. Living in Africa, is no walk in the park, they have little hospitals, dirty water, and few medical buildings. Living is not easy. The illiteracy rate for the countries in Africa vary widely as well, but the average seems to be between 24% to even as much 63%.
    According to UN, with all these poor conditions in Africa, they are not developed. This makes it hard for them to do things, and help their people. Things can change, but it isn't all that easy, but change is good and like it is now, it is very needed.

Rodriguez, Fransico. AIDWATCH. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2012. <http://aidwatchers.com/2010/12/ 

     what-the-new-hdi-tells-us-about-africa/>. 

RELIGIOUS TIES WITH AIDS
     One very important part of the argument that not many people ever seem to point out when talking about HIV/AIDS and its growth is religion. While religion isn't always the reason the disease is transmitted, it does play an important part (not always in a good way) some of the time.
      Many people believe religion should not be associated with disease and bad things, but the truth of the matter is, that religion has rules and these rules can very much so impact the HIV rate in some cultures. An example of these rules can be shown by the Catholic religion. In Catholicism, the use of condoms and contraceptives is a big no. It is also not allowed to have sex before marriage. The not allowing of people to use condoms, can cause (when being involved in intercourse) for the male body parts and the women body parts to fully touch, this is what will spread the disease. Catholicism is also the most followed religion in the world, this could be a reason why some people can be infected. Other huge religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism are also against the use of condoms.

"Condoms and Religion." Condom King . N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2012. 

     <http://www.discountcondomking.com/about-condoms/condom-religion.cfm>. 

GOING BACK TO THE START
   HIV/AIDS is not a disease that only can affect the human race, but animals as well. The disease has been found in a number of different animals, including cats, sheep, and horses. However, the most interesting case has to be the investigation into the origins of HIV through the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) that affects monkeys, which is believed to be at least 32,000 years old. 

   In February 1999 a group of researchers from the University of Alabama made a startling discovery. They discovered that a type of SIV was identical to the HIV we know now. This sample came from a frozen chimpanzee from who's race was once very common in Africa. It is not known exactly how the virus got around to humans, but there are many theories. For example, there is a hunter theory in which the hunter got some chimpanzee blood on him and then went on to spreading it by accident. Most scientists do accept though that it was spread from animal to human through sex. 

"HIV&AIDS Science ." avert.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2012. <http://www.avert.org/ 

     origin-aids-hiv.htm>. 

    

THE PEOPLE IN AFRICA TALK 
    There are many video made about Africa, especially about diseases and the lifestyle in Africa. This video has the camera man going around and asking people on the street if they've been tested for HIV and why. While many people have been tested, a lot of the people say they don't feel the need to. When asked why some of them were tested, they say because they have had unprotected sex or have slept with someone who is a carrier of the disease. Many people, even though they have slept with others, don't feel the need too because they haven't noticed any change in their body. Little do some of these people know that HIV isn't always visible.
    Many people all over Africa use the excuse of not having a hospital or the time to go tested. Some governments in Africa are taking a stand to try and help out with HIV/AIDS testing. For example, in the video it shows that the Kenyan government has gone door to door testing people and giving them help. While this can help a lot of the people living in Kenya, many of them still use excuses and are afraid to get tested.

http://youtu.be/-p2CSfig81Y

WHO HELPS AND HOW? 
  There are many of organizations that try to help the cause of HIV/AIDS in Africa every year. These organizations are the ones who make the difference in millions of people's lives every year. The help is little by little making a big step towards an Africa free of HIV/AIDS , or an Africa with much less cases of the disease than it does have now.
   In Africa, there are currently more than 100 organizations helping the needy. Some examples are United Nations (UN), World Trade Organization (WTO), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and World Health Organization. All of these organizations accept money, in which they use to buy food, vaccines, or whatever it is they are choosing to donate. Most of the organizations donate medicine that can slow down the HIV process or HIV tests, so people can know from an early stage if they have the disease. The earlier you know about the disease, the easier it is too cure it. The problem with most of these organizations is that they take a lot of the money that is donated and keep it to themselves. Regardless, these are the organizations that make the difference that is needed in Africa, the question is, will they ever be able to help out Africa to such an extent to stop or really lower the amount of cases in the contaminated country?
 

"Universal Access to AIDS treatment." AVERT. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2012. <http://   www.avert.org/universal-access.htm>. 

 

POLITICAL PROBLEMS WITH HIV/AIDS

   Ever since the Cold War there have been many things that showcase political instability all over the world. Some of these could be showcased by terrorist attacks, the making of nuclear technologies, and naturally occurring epidemic diseases such as HIV/AIDS. The disease part being much of Africa's problem. 

    HIV/AIDS can cause many problems by itself mainly being put in three categories. First, HIV/AIDS  is dramatically reducing  life expectancy and quality of life. Second, the disease is eroding the economic strength of the country,shrinking productivity, a decline in savings, and increasing the country's debt load. Third, the disease is shrinking many institutions of the government (such as police and military forces). All these three things can be very bad to a country. Also, when countries help out their citizens by putting shelters or giving aid, a lot of money is lost.  They notonly can make a country more poor, but decline its population and economy. 

Price-Smith, Andrew T. "Downward Spiral." sirs.com. N.p., July 2004. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. 

     <http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/ 

     hst-article-display?id=SFL2086-0-4692&artno=0000214141&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=political%2    

     0instability%20in%20africa&title=Downward%20Spiral&res=N&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=Y&ic=N>.

DIRTY DRINKING WATER

   Clean drinkable water is somewhat hard to find Africa. In fact, according to many sources more than half of the country's population doesn't have access to something that many of us take for granted. Clean water seems like a non-existing problem to someone who lives in a country where they make water filters and get clean water off their refrigerators, but for many in Africa, this is not the case. 

    Even though this video has more images then pictures, it does put out that for these people, life is not so easy. Dirty water can lead to many diseases as shown in the beginning of this video. For example, in rural Ethiopia, 80% of illness are due to dirty water. 250,000 children die from diarrhea every year because of this dirty water. Considering the fact that health care is practically non-existing, many of these dieng people can't do anything about their health problems.  

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