AIDS :: Free AIDS Essays

Nearly 90 percent of Russias HIV infections occur among addicts sharing funky needles (Klesius, p.35). This plowshare from a National Geographic magazine would differ heavily from that of the United States. The Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation reported that through the year 2002 in the state of Colorado that only 9% of aids cases in the state were due to injection do drugs use and 25% on the national level. (Kaiser Family Foundation) In the United States, Men who have sex with men would more closely share Russias dirty needle task for being the number 1 cause for AIDS transmission with 46% in the U.S. and 69% in the state of Colorado. These figures here in the states prove to coincide with the majority of Americans view on who they think is the stereotypical person septic with AIDS, merry males. I took the liberty of asking random Americans who they thought was stereotypical person in America infected with AIDS. The results didnt vary from my understanding of previous viewpoint s. 18 out of 20 of these random Americans told me that they considered the stereotypical infected person with AIDS would be a gay male. I then asked them if this changed their viewpoints on the AIDS epidemic and its seriousness. 8 out the 20 told me that they didnt worry about it because they believed it to only be a problem for gays here in America and those who live in Africa, not themselves. Now, I have to say that this is a pretty close minded view shared out by a large number of Americans, if this percentage of my poll were to represent the whole United States. I do note that Gay males have the highest percentage of those who have the disease here in America, but should that be a reason for not caring about this epidemic?Yet AIDS is pacify a serious problem because of the high fatality rates, the costs of treating the disease, and the difficulty of eliminating such HIV/AIDS risk factors as unprotected sex and injecting drug use(132). This statement wouldnt be so bad if it wer e describing a virus with only a small population. Unfortunately this statement is describing one with a large population. The Centers for Disease Control (C.D.C.) and the White House have statistics of the AIDS epidemic here in the states and the rest of the world. None of which are miniscule by any means.