I read the article A Grndered Epidemic. Women and the Risks and Burdens of HIV. I found this article to be not only sad but also a shock. I did a paper on HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe in a previous class and this article related a lot to the information I had found while completing my paper. Women and children are becoming more and more at risk and contracting HIV than the men and boys of our world. Like the article had stated women especially young girls are able to contract the disease easier than men due to their immature genital tracks making them more susceptible to the infection. Sub-Saharah African women suffer a great deal from HIV due to their culture and style of living. Many of the young girsl are with older men who may participate in homosexual acts and then come home to their wives and pass the disease they might not know they even have. Drug use is also a cause of HIV cases but does not account for near as many as sexual intercourse. There has many techniques made available for mothers who do have HIV to not transmit the disease to their newborn that are cost effective but for mothers that are in Africa or under developed countries they do not always get the proper care needed nor do they have the money to provide nuttrient rich food to their child so they will breastfeed and spread HIV to their child. Helping inform adolescents about the risks involved with HIV can help reduce the amount of women who are carrying this deadly disease. Having the female condom accessabile to women has made a major difference to women in developing countries because they are now having the ability to protect themselves from getting HIV. A response to global AIDS needs to be a priority and until more can be done to help our women and children in developing countries the prevelance rate of HIV/AIDS is going to remain the same.
Piot, P. (2001). A Gendered Epidemic. Women and the Risks and Burdens of HIV. Retrieved from http://twupilot.blackboard.com/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_16839_1%26url%3D
Melissa,
ReplyDeleteI like your blog about HIV, it is very informative, but sad, to say the least. I agree that there needs to be a response to global AIDs. There are so many people that ignore issues such as this because it merely does not affect them. However, by going ignored the problem will only get bigger. More money needs to be put in projects that teach education and awareness. Women in these Sub-Saharan African regions need to learn about protecting themselves and what they can do if they happen to contract the disease. Hopefully, something like this can help eliminate this horrible illness.
-Sarah Petersen
Hello Melissa,
ReplyDeleteThe chapter in our text regarding birth control was very interesting. I did not think too much about the female condom, but now see many many advantages for women, globally. Especially in areas such as Sub Saharan Africa. The female condom does not rely on hormones or prescriptions, and really gives women some control over their sexual practices. Men may refuse to wear condoms, but with appropriate and culturally effective education, maybe the men and women of the region can see the benefits; and change behaviors that will reduce the risk of HIV.
Thank you,
Amy Hicks