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.  

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fRlVf3ilwuY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

     

PROJECT THUS FAR 

   The project thus far has been a great learning experience. I have learned that taking things for granted is something that I should never do again because there are millions of millions of people out there that would die to be in my shoes. Also, I have seen throughout the project that HIV/AIDS is much more serious that I thought it was before. Where I live, you never hear about someone having HIV/AIDS but in places that have extreme poverty, it's very common to hear that someone is in infected with HIV/AIDS. Not only has this project thought me that I am one of the lucky people in the world by not having to live in such hard conditions but it has also taught me many thing about HIV/AIDS and the way people live with it around the world. This project has impacted my life in so many ways.

WIKI
 
    I have recently started a website to go along with this blog. It has been a fun experience and I am really looking forward to finishing the website. I have found that I was very lucky to be born into such a privileged family, unlike much of the people out there in the world today. There are so many things people take for granted like a glass of water or a little snack but there are people out there in the world, such as Africa, that would die for that one snack.

You can go on my website by clicking on the page below:

https://sites.google.com/site/stoppingaidsinafrica/

People living with AIDS in Africa 

     As I am here blogging and taking my resources and everything around me for granted, there is a little boy in Africa that would give up anything to be in my position. AIDS seems to affect places like the Democratic of Congo in Africa more because of the poor care and environment. There are over 2.6 million people in the DOC suffering from HIV/AIDS today.

    What makes Africa such an attractive place for AIDS? Why is it that AIDS can affect any one in the world but it seems to affect the people of Africa, especially the poorer countries like the Democratic of Congo more? Is it because of the little education? There are many reasons.  

    Many people that are suffering from this disease can't help but blame their surroundings. Many places like DOC are in very bad conditions from politics to the economy. As the man in the video says, the government in DOC doesn't try to do anything about this and has not even put up a shelter home that will help all these people. Another theory that I have is that since education is so low in these places, they do not learn right from wrong and don't realize what harm something as pleasing as sex can do to them. It's hard to survive a disease that its only cure costs thousands of dollars in a third world country. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzQQiCPWSYA

     

    

UNDERSTANDING HIV/AIDS IN MORE DEPTH
        
        HIV isn't at all a simple disease. It can come in many ways and in different forms and shapes. HIV is one of the most popular diseases in the world because it doesn't matter where or who you are, you can always get it. The worst part about it is that, its very hard to cure. 
        HIV eventually turns into AIDS. When the body detects a virus, white blood cells try and kill that virus for protection, AIDS kills of all of these white blood cells and shuts the immune system down. 
        It's hard to identify exactly where exactly this disease came from, but many scientists hypothesize it might have started in Africa. HIV was first identified in 1984 by French and American scientists, but the human immunodeficiency virus did not get its name until 1986.
       Having HIV means that you can pass it to others while having sex (because it is an STD) or by sharing needles. If someone has HIV/AIDS they should use condoms and inform their sex partners because it is highly contagious and having a baby with HIV/ AIDS can cause the baby to have many problems.  
        While treatment is limited, a person with HIV should get tested once every six months. There are many types of tests but a common one other than HIV screening is CD4 cell count. CD4 is a cell that helps protect your body, the number of CD4 cells in your blood shows how strong your immune system is. As long as your CD4 count is over 600, you will need to have it tested about every 6 months. If your CD4 count drops below 500, your doctor may suggest testing your blood more often and may start you on medicine to slow HIV. 
     
 "Understanding HIV: early HIV infection." Pamphlet by: Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, 1994. COV+. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 Mar. 2012.

HIV SCREENING
  A big part of this blog is focused on how to stop HIV/AIDS. Many people have contemplated on this thought for years but little has been done overall to help it. Many people all over the world never know they have HIV until it is too late. HIV screenings will help a person know if they have HIV and maybe could end up saving this person.

   Health professionals all over the world from little clinics to big name hospital should be familiar with HIV screenings. HIV screening can be done in most hospitals or doctor's office using various forms of technology.These screenings have doses like most other medical tests and they change from person to person. For example, while pregnant women should get tested in the first and third trimester, people at high risks should be screened at least once a year. People with frequent HIV side effects should be tested regularly as well.

  HIV screenings must be voluntary but every doctor should be recommending the screening to everyone over 13 years of age. While it is optional, most people hardly every say "no" to the testing for various health reasons. My question for this is, do they have these tests in Africa? It says here doctors all over the world have them but in Africa simple things everyone takes for granted like food is scarce not to mention doctors and medicine supplies. It is hard to tell from one article how people in Africa and all over the world can know if they have this horrible disease, but that's why the research must continue.

      Branson, Bernard M., and others. "Revised Recommendations for HIV Testing of Adults, Adolescents..." MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY WEEKLY REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS AND REPORTS. Sept. 22 2006: 1-16. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 26 Feb 2012.

HIV/AIDS STATISTICS

    To start of my intriguing topic I must first establish a foundation in which we may know a little bit more about the topic, and its number around the world. How many people does it affect? How many of them are children? As the years progress, HIV/AIDS just keeps spreading and affecting more lives. Every 10 seconds someone is lost to this relentless disease.  

   5 to 6 million people need lifesaving HIV drug treatment in low and middle income countries, yet only seven percent, or 400,000 people, have access to this expensive, much needed treatment. There are many so called "prevention" programs but they only reach fewer than one in five of the people who need them; and an estimated 15 million children under the age of 18 worldwide have lost one or both parents to AIDS! 12 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Does this mean HIV/AIDS started in Africa? Why is it such a prevalent disease and cause of death in this one country? Is this what keeps them from becoming a global figure? 

Black, A. (2004, October). HIV/ AIDS. State Magazine . Retrieved from http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/ 

     hst-article-display?id=SFL2086-0-4692&artno=0000192565&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=spread%20of%20aids&tit 

     le=HIV%2FAIDS&res=N&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=Y&ic=N 

I chose the topic of AIDS because  I have always been interested in medicine, especially on what can be done to prevent it and how it spreads. AIDS is a big name disease known all over the world today (it has affected almost every country of the world if not all of them) but it affects Africa in huge amounts. Two simple but well thought out questions will be the answer to my curiosity, why is HIV/AIDS so common in Africa and what can be done to stop them from spreading even more?