Is HIV and AIDS Still the threat it was 20 years ago?!
Question: Is HIV and AIDS Still the threat it was 20 years ago!?
Is HIV and AIDS still the deadky illness as it was 20 years ago!. I ask because we don't hear of anyone dying from it now nd ive heard that its as easy to control as diabetes!. The AIDS scares of the early 90's really cast a shadow over our lives - we all thought we were going to get it one way or another!.Www@Answer-Health@Com
Answers:
Untreated, it is still just as deadly as 20 years ago, although we are better at treating it these days!. Treatments for HIV/AIDS are expensive, often difficult to take, have lots of side effects including serious ones, and often fail eventually!. People still die from it, although not as commonly in places with first world standard medical care!. I don't think it's as controllable as diabetes!. Prevention is a far better strategy than relying on treatment!.
We understand the epidemiology of HIV better now than we did 20 years ago!. Back then the realisation that it can be spread heterosexually as an STI led some pundits to predict that it would end up infecting large numbers of people outside the traditional "risk groups"!.
In fact, this is exactly what has happened in some parts of the world, particularly in Southern Africa!. Public health experts recognise that it still could in many parts of the world!. However, the predicted heterosexually transmitted epidemics in the West have not occurred!. The reasons for the difference are complex, but include differences in the patterns of sexual networks, higher take up of testing and treatment, and also a degree of behaviour change!. Part of the reason for the high prevalence of HIV in Southern Africa has been poor political and public health responses to an admittedly complex and difficult problem!.
Epidemiologically, HIV is a borderline case between a bug going nowhere (to extinction) and a bug that can go pandemic!. It can go either way, depending on the dominant modes of body fluid exchange in different communities!.
The panic merchants from 20 years ago were partly wrong, and partly right!. The threat from HIV is controllable, but it will take some common sense, and also frank, honest, and compassionate examination of the ways the bug spreads, both between indivduals and also within whole populations!.
And no, don't rely on medical treatment to "fix" the problem!. The best way of fixing the problem is preventing preventing people getting infected in the first place, which means understanding the types of contacts which facilitate its spread!.Www@Answer-Health@Com
We understand the epidemiology of HIV better now than we did 20 years ago!. Back then the realisation that it can be spread heterosexually as an STI led some pundits to predict that it would end up infecting large numbers of people outside the traditional "risk groups"!.
In fact, this is exactly what has happened in some parts of the world, particularly in Southern Africa!. Public health experts recognise that it still could in many parts of the world!. However, the predicted heterosexually transmitted epidemics in the West have not occurred!. The reasons for the difference are complex, but include differences in the patterns of sexual networks, higher take up of testing and treatment, and also a degree of behaviour change!. Part of the reason for the high prevalence of HIV in Southern Africa has been poor political and public health responses to an admittedly complex and difficult problem!.
Epidemiologically, HIV is a borderline case between a bug going nowhere (to extinction) and a bug that can go pandemic!. It can go either way, depending on the dominant modes of body fluid exchange in different communities!.
The panic merchants from 20 years ago were partly wrong, and partly right!. The threat from HIV is controllable, but it will take some common sense, and also frank, honest, and compassionate examination of the ways the bug spreads, both between indivduals and also within whole populations!.
And no, don't rely on medical treatment to "fix" the problem!. The best way of fixing the problem is preventing preventing people getting infected in the first place, which means understanding the types of contacts which facilitate its spread!.Www@Answer-Health@Com