Most of what I know about HIV/AIDS has come from sex education in school and from the media. I feel that I have a pretty good understanding of how the disease progresses, it's effects on the immune system, transmission routes, the social implications of the disease, and research efforts to find a cure. However, I was suprised to learn from the video on Wednesday that the most common rate of transmission is found in cases of hetersexual relationships, where married women are the fastest-growing group of people to acquire the disease. It is very unfortunate that they most often acquire the disease from their husbands.
I am very interested to learn about the cultural and social implications of the disease, in America and in other countries. As an anthropology student, it is very interesting to me to see how diseases influence and are influenced by culture, politics, economics, women's rights, and the media. I would also like to learn more about research efforts and the allocation of research funds throughout the various political administrations since the disease was first diagnosed. I would also like to learn more about international cooperative efforts to combat the disease, such as the International AIDS Society (http://www.iasociety.org/).
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Personally, and I know I sound like a Nazi but oops if I do, there are far bigger issues in the world today than Aids. First of all, what is at the root of the problem? Obviously socioeconomic factors sure, but aside from those who contract the disease from birth or from non-sexual transmission of fluids (blood transfusion or other rare instances), it really just comes down to one very controllable urge to have unprotected sexual intercourse. Frankly, if I lived in a shithole like the slums of Dakar or Manilla, where I wasn't given access to condoms or other barrier methods of protection, a few minutes of getting off would be well worth the chance that I might die just a couple years earlier than the rest of my friends anyway. Hell, at least I got laid. I've been to slums in Manilla. I wanted to kill myself after seeing the tragic conditions those children were in. Hey Bill, I have a thought, why don't you put the majority of your tax shelters into a strong MFI program or into funding water purification plants instead of trying to cure death itself. Aids sucks, and steps should be made in medicine to combat this terrible disease, but don't you think there are better ways to spend billions of dollars? What we really need is an intentional and ethical method of birth control. I'm not talking about cheating and erasing mistakes or unfortunate mishaps (abortion), but good old fashioned party hats. Back to Aids research funding (that's what I was referring to with the Bill reference), helping victims is one thing, and I can support that whole heartedly, but there really are bigger, badder monsters out there. The reciprocal impact would be much greater if money was spent on more productive programs. It's like taking a bum to gamble vs. taking him out to lunch. It sucks, but it's the way it is.
ReplyDeleteThat is cool that you think about the more of the social aspects of the disease and that you are interested in learning more about it. It makes sense that you would be since you're in anthropology.
ReplyDeleteIn my case, I'm a bio major and the science of the disease is more interesting to me. The race to fing the cure and treatments for it excites me since this is such a new phenomena.