Dani Jessee

May 2, 2010

African Health/Illness

Essay 4

HIV/Aids Epidemic in Africa

One of the greatest challenges that our generation is facing has spread like wild fire, becoming one of the worst epidemics in only the last couple decades. The devastation of HIV/Aids has lasted far longer than the influenza epidemic, small pox, or the black plague, “All these epidemics clearly differed from HIV/Aids in their greater infectiousness, their short incubation period, the speed with which they killed, and their brief but dramatic impact” (Iliffe, pp. 59).   HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus that attacks the immune system and breaks it down leaving the body more susceptible to illness.  Without treatment, most people infected with HIV become less able to fight off germs that we are exposed to every day. AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is a late stage of HIV infection.  An HIV positive person is diagnosed with AIDS when their immune system is so weakened that it is no longer able to fight off illness. People with immune deficiency are much more vulnerable to infections such as pneumonia and various forms of cancer. HIV can be transmitted person to person through unprotected sexual intercourse with infected person, transfusion of infected blood or blood products, infected mother to her baby during pregnancy, birth process and through breastfeeding, use of infected needles and instruments without sterilization or sharing of needles and syringes by HIV positive drug addicts.

 The HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa has become an enormous problem that cannot and should not be ignored by anyone. Out of all of the people in the world with AIDS, no less than one third reside in Africa, with nearly thirty-four million people living in sub-Sahara Africa infected with HIV. There is convincing evidence that one of the first cases of the human immunodeficiency virus was gathered in the capital of the Belgian Congo in 1959. There is also reliable evidence that the virus originated from SIV, simian immunodeficiency virus, which is an infection from African monkeys. It is impossible to know how the transmission took place however, “one possibility may have been infection by blood in the course of hunting as men penetrated the equatorial forest…Aids is a by-product of the human mastering of the natural environment that has been the core of African history”(Iliffe, pp. 4).         

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 John Iliffe states in his book, “A History of the African AIDS Epidemic”, that “Africa had the worst epidemic because it had the first epidemic” (Iliffe, pp.158).  HIV became an epidemic during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s in sub- Saharan countries. Reasons for its epidemic outbreak include increased urbanization that began in the later colonial period and the increased mobility of young urban immigrants. Also poverty was a growing problem all over parts of sub- Saharan Africa, which led to large amounts of women “to depend on sexual relationships with men either for survival or for otherwise unobtainable goods” ...

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This essay provides a reasonable overview of the main themes concerning HIV/AIDS in Africa and the basic structure is acceptable. It is too reliant on a narrow range of sources in places, and could be improved by explicitly comparing and contrasting differing viewpoints. The conclusion also needs to be improved, as it introduces too many new ideas and does not sum up the argument well. 3 stars.