Rise of AIDS in Africa

Paper Summary:

This paper investigates the effectiveness of current HIV/AIDS prevention programs currently implemented in Africa. It asks the questions about the type of prevention programs are being implemented, which types are the most effective, and what is lacking within these programs, since they are failing to stop the AIDS epidemic in Africa. In addition, this paper briefly describes economic effects of the AIDS epidemic. Causes of the rise of AIDS are provided in the introduction.

From the Paper:

"Fifteen years ago, there were some regions of the world that remained untouched by AIDS. Now, however, there is not a single country around the world that has escaped the AIDS epidemic (Christensen, 2000). Some of the developed nations hit by the epidemic in the 1980's have slowed the rate of new infections and lowered mortality rates (Christensen, 2000). Although many countries are changing the devestation of AIDS, no region of the world has a higher AIDS-related burden than sub-Saharan Africa. The statistics are shocking. Sixty seven percent of the 33 million people living with AIDS in 1998 were residents of one of the 34 countries of sub-Saharan Africa (Hunter, 2003 p. 29). Of all AIDS deaths since the epidemic started, eighty three percent have occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (Hunter, 2003 p. 8). In sub-Saharan nations, 1 out of 4 adults is HIV positive (Hunter, 2003 p. 11). Among children under age 15 living with HIV/AIDS, 90% live in sub-Saharan Africa (Christensen, 2000). Africans infected with HIV die much sooner after diagnosis than HIV-infected people in other parts of the world (Hunter, 2003 p. 207). Survival time after diagnosis of AIDS ranged from nine to twenty-six months (Hunter, 2003 p. 62). In Africa, the survival time of patients with AIDS ranged from five to nine months (Hunter, 2003 p. 78). The reasons that people who are infected are dieing so quickly is because of the lack of effective prevention programs, lack of government involvement, and a lack of healthcare (Meyer-Weitz and Steyn, 1992, Lejeune, 1993, Christensen, 2000, Martz, 2001, and Sewpaul, 2001). This paper examines the reasons for the spread of AIDS. It also analyzes the effectiveness of current prevention programs implemented in Africa to stop the rise of AIDS. In addition, this paper briefly touches on the economic effects of AIDS. The AIDS problem has the ability to crush the nation's work force and economy."

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