If you talk about AIDS these days, most people think of Africa. Since two thirds of the people infected with HIV in the world live in Africa. In some countries over 80 percent of all adults will die of HIV. But the truth of the matter is, that HIV/AIDS is a pandemic problem that is all over the world, including here in the USA. So what is HIV/AIDS? If you were to ask people around you, the majority of the people will tell you that its something bad that kills you. Most people don’t even know what it means.
For starters, HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus and‚ AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. So what’s the difference between the two. HIV is the virus and AIDS is the syndrome acquired from the infection of the virus. HIV specifically attacks the immune system. “Going after the CD4+ helper T cells that help maintain effective immunity against the virus itself” (Anderson, 2005). Some HIV- infected individuals that remain healthy with normal CD4 counts for decades are called long-term non-progressors “LTNP”.
They do have the virus, but it remains at a very low level and very hidden within the body. HIV can be passed by: blood, semen, pre cum, vagina fluid and breast milk. HIV cannot be passed by the following: sweat, saliva, tears, urine, mosquito’s and air. Once infected by the virus people can immediately start on ARVs which stands for antiretrovirals. These will lower the amount of the virus in your body fluids, also known as the “viral load”. Because “HIV is transmitted when the viral load is high, viral load is high immediately after you get infected.
That means most people who pass HIV on sexually do so when they’re newly infected” (Pisani, 2009). But the only way to know for certain if a person is infected is for them to take an HIV antibody test. An example is the “Elisa” test. Another test that people can take is a polymerase chain reaction test “PCR”. This will look for the presence of HIV in the blood, not the antibodies. “People who once feared certain death if they were to become infected no longer have these worries” (Katz, 2005). Due to sense that HIV is less of a concern since it has become so treatable.
The problem with people not worrying as much is that people are not being very careful. Even if a person knows that their partner has AIDS, they might think that they’re probably on treatment, so they won’t be that infectious. For others if they test positive, they might say, “I’m already infected, what’s the point of using a condom? ” Most at risk worldwide for HIV are women, at risk for infection from men. Largely because girls have far more difficulty negotiating safer sex practices with partners and because condom use is mostly under male control.
People have unsafe sex because it is more intimate, it feels better, they are in denial that they can become infected, and they are in denial that the other person is infected. A major issue with unsafe sex is in the adult industry. Adult film performers engage in prolonged and repeated sexual acts with multiple sexual partners over short periods of time, creating ideal conditions for transmission of HIV. “Performers report that they are required to work without condoms to maintain employment” (Terrell, 2010).
Only about 17 percent of performers use condoms and those are usually homosexual performers also known as “MSM” men that have sex with men. Even though performers do get tested every 30 days, by a clinic known as “AIM”, they still remain as a high risk to their film partners, as they do with their personal sex partners at home. A lot can be transmitted within a 30 day window. With porn being a billion dollar industry yearly, it is certainly sending out the wrong messages to the million of viewers out there.
Reference: Terrell, K. (2010, October 25).Why the Porn Industry’s HIV Problem Is Our Problem, Too. Retrieved from The Health Central Network Inc. website: http://www. thebody. com/content/art/art59146. html Anderson, D. J. , & Katz, M. H. (2005). Conceptual advances: HIV adaptive immunity. In K. H. Mayer & H. F. Pizer (Eds. ), The AIDS Pandemic: Impact on science and society (pp. 44,106). San Diego, California: Elsevier Academic Press. Pisani, E. (2008). The naked truth. In The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, brothels and the business of AIDS (p. 132). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.