Introduction
A communicable disease is a disease transmitted through people, animals, and surfaces and is carried by micro organisms. They are transmitted through blood contact, close contact with an infected person or through body fluid contact of an infected to a healthy person. These diseases include Malaria, HIV-AIDS helps, whooping cough, and Mumps among others (Lengauer, Altmann, Thielen & Kaiser, 2010).
This paper concentrates on HIV-AIDS; it will evaluate what measures are in place as well as the effects that the disease has on human life.
H. I. V. and A.I.D.S
H. I. V. is the virus that is responsible for causing A.I.D.S, a person who has the virus is at the risk of developing A.I.D.S. The virus is transmitted when body fluids of an invested person come into contact with those of an uninfected person. Once the virus gets into the body, it manifests and multiplies itself when hiding in the blood cells. The cell in the body that it attach itself to is the white blood cell. Before the virus can be detected in the body system, it stays for at least three months.
A.I.D.S on the hand is the final stages of H.I.V. When the virus has “blown out” and having affected the white blood cells to a point that they can’t protect the body any more, optimistic diseases take advantage and affect the person; these optimistic diseases may be tuberculosis or pneumonia, they infect the body and since the body immune system is weak, it cannot fight the infections and the most probable resultant is death (Bebea, 2006).
Data Findings, Evidence-Based Intervention, and a Plan to Ensure Quality Health
According to 2008 UNAIDS statistics, there were 33.4 million infected people in the world with Africa having the majority. It goes further to say that since 1981; the disease has killed over 25 million people and created over 14 million orphans (See appendix for the statistic).
Treatment and Care
Currently there are no drugs that cure HIV. However, there have been drugs that have been developed to boost the immune system of the body and thus assist the body in fighting the disease. They are called ARVs, antiviral drugs. Their aim is to help the body fight the diseases that come as optimistic to the body weak system. Other than those drugs, the diseases that attack the body are cured in the normal way like in the case of a healthy person.
Physicians are developing immunization medicines but not much success has been achieved. The second approach to take care of the disease is by creating a massive public awareness. This will assist the public to take preventive measure which include, abstaining from having sex, being faithful to one spouse, and finally use of condoms when having sex as a preventive measure (Brown & Qaqish, 2006).
The Environmental Factors Related to the Disease
Sexual intercourse; there are different modes of sexual intercourse that human beings interact in; they are heterosexual, homosexual, and lesbianism. In all the above sexual intercourse, there involves the mixing of body fluids of the concerned parties. If one of them is having the virus it is transmitted to the other one during this process.
Blood transmission – in case of blood transmission, the blood of one person is given to another, this is in medical situations, and there have been circumstances where blood that is already invested with the disease is given to a patient, though this is a rare case, it spreads the virus. Parental transmission – this is when the child gets the virus from the parent when breast feeding.
Usage of contaminated instruments or syringes- this happens when one uses instruments that have already been used by a person who has the virus, this is common in drug users when they inject themselves the drugs that they are using; if one of them is contaminated he/she can transmit the virus to the others during this period (Turner, D. et al, 2005).
The Influence of Lifestyles, Socioeconomic Status, and Disease Management
The disease makes an individual weak to a point that he cannot be productive person in his country. It is a disease that requires management in terms of medicine and a special diet. When a person is infected most are the times that he faces negative discrimination and thus he is not able to fully participate in nation development.
His social economic status depletes. When managing the disease it takes the efforts of the government and peoples concerned to manage the disease. This calls for government resources being directed to such programs like awareness campaigns and drug development/purchasing (Basavapathruni & Anderson).
Gaps and Methods for Linking To Other Resources to Meet Needs That Are Not Locally Available For the Population
People have not fully understood the fact that the disease can be managed and the person suffering from it need not be discriminated. In places like jobs and public offices there should be no discrimination since when one manages his condition well, he can stay a healthy life like any other person (Turner, 2005).
Recommendations to Expand Communities’ Programs
When HIV-AIDS was first recorded in the world, the campaigners portrayed it as a killer disease. This shaped the minds of the people to believe that when one is sick, the next step is death. This is not true as it can be managed. What can be done is to erode that belief through more campaigns to enlighten people (Bebea, 2006).
Conclusion
HIV-AIDS is an ailment (communicable) that is spread through body fluids from infected individuals. The disease has no cure but can be managed using immune boosting medicines. The infected have a weak body and undergo stigmatization that hinders their productivity. As medicine and immunization are developed, more awareness need to be done to reduce its spread.
Reference List
Basavapathruni, A and Anderson, K. (December 2007). “Reverse transcription of the HIV-1 pandemic”. The FASEB Journal 21 (14): 3795–3808
Bebea, I. (2006). Fighting H.I.V./AIDS; The Balm in Gilead challenges clerics. Network Journal, 13(4), 10. Retrieved from Ethnic NewsWatch (ENW). (Document ID: 1007376031)
Brown, T. and Qaqish, R. (2006). Antiretroviral therapy and the prevalence of osteopenia and osteoporosis: a meta-analytic review. AIDS (London, England) 20 (17): 2165–2174.
Lengauer, T., Altmann, A., Thielen, A. and Kaiser, A. (2010). “Chasing the AIDS virus”. Communications of the ACM 53 (3): 66. doi:10.1145/1666420.1666440
Turner, D. et al. (2005). “Substitutions in the Reverse Transcriptase and Protease Genes of HIV-1 Subtype B in Untreated Individuals and Patients Treated With Antiretroviral Drugs.” Journal of the International AIDS Society 7 (2005): 69. Academic OneFile. Web.
UNAIDS. (2008). Worldwide HIV & AIDS Statistic, end of 2008. Retrieved from https://www.avert.org/global-hiv-and-aids-statistics
Appendix
Global HIV/AIDS estimates, end of 2008
The latest statistics of the global HIV and AIDS were published by UNAIDS in November 2009, and refer to the end of 2008.
More than 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981.
Africa has over 14 million AIDS orphans.
At the end of 2008, women accounted for 50% of all adults living with HIV worldwide
In developing and transitional countries, 9.5 million people are in immediate need of life-saving AIDS drugs; of these, only 4 million (42%) are receiving the drugs.