Knowledge of HIV / AIDS

To be honest, I have a pretty basic understanding of what exactly HIV / AIDS are. Well, I know that "Aids" stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and "HIV" stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. I understand that when a person gets HIV, it is first a virus, which eventuallydevelops into Aids disease. There is no cure for Aids, only medications to help ease the pain and deal with some of the many side affects that occurs when one has the infection. HIV can be contracted by any bodily fluids being exchanged whether it be by vaginal or oral sex or from mother-to-child or an open wound/ blood, HIV is a very seriuos issue that needs to be taken more serious within the United States. AIDS is the developing factor that comes from later stages of HIV. Aids is a disease that attacks the human body's immune system as well as pretty much damaging the entire body's organs along the way.

Through a number of health classes and by reading articles and hearing what the news reported on HIV/AIDS related topics, I have been able to grasp the basics of this popular world-wide infection. I personally would like to know more about the number of health organizations that are working towards not only finding a cure for the infections, but also what steps have been taken to aid the worldly pandemic. I would like to find out an apporixament number of how much it would cost to bring vaccines and medications to infected countries globally. In reference to the video "Timeline", I was amazed to see how fast the spread of HIV/AIDS really are. Also, one thing that really made me mad was when I heard that women in a number of countries have no rights or identity. Due to their lack of identity, they were forbiden to ask thier husbands to use a condom or some sort of barrier that would help not transmitt the disease. I was also amazed on how much of a stigma there is about a person being infected with HIV/AIDS in some countries compared to others that it was nothing more than a way of life.

The education of prevention towards the trasnmission of HIV/AIDS are still in dire need in order cut down on the massive infected numbers. Another factor that is important is even though there is education being taught about prevention options, I think it depends of the culture that it is being taught to. Within the culture, the information could be used or not used simply on the basis of beleifs.

Both videos I would like to watch again simply becuase it is so interesting. There is so much that has been done in history to find a cure for this disease, but at the same time it we are so far from finding a cure. Even if a cure was found, how long would it take to make sure all countries were treated? but how much vaccine would it take to treat the world?