AIDS videos.

My first reaction when I found out that I had to watch a fifteen minute video on AIDS, I was dreading it because it's usually just the same old stuff about how terrible it is. As I was watching it though, I found it to be so interesting and so awful that things like that actually happen in the world. It just doesn't even seem right that such ignorance and lack of knowledge exists on such a serious and life threatening issue. As you would hear some of the women talk about themselves having to have a sexual relationship with the guy catching the fish just so she could feed her family because of having no source of income due to her husband passing away from the disease is heart wrenching. My prayers really go out to the families that have to experience this. Especially the kids who are 14 years old having to take care of their brothers and sisters because they lost both of their parents to AIDS. These poor children see that and that ends up being their destiny. I knew that the virus was bad in Africa but I had no idea that it was to this extent. God bless the man attempting to educate groups of people in Africa that this is definitely not a curse but a deadly disease that can be prevented simply by wearing a condom or properly wearing a condom. Hopefully he will be even the slightest bit successful to save these people from the virus.
I believe that the effects of the AIDS virus is so much more massive in Africa then they are in the United States because there is such a lack of knowledge and education of the disease. Also, there is such a large amount poverty and these are so desperate to survive that they feel as though they have no other choice but to sell themselves for their life and their families lives. The knowledge that I had about this virus before watching there videos was pretty great in regards to how so many people were so uneducated and how there was so much poverty that it created a greater spread because African people wanted to survive, but I had no idea that it was to this great of an extent. These poor women have sex with men that catch fish so they can feed their family of six, a meal for only one. The culture that was created in Africa keeps getting passed on to the children because when a family member that was having sex for food dies from the virus, their children become vulnerable to the same actions just to survive because there is no other source of income for them. To be completely honest with this issue, I don't think there are a lot of different options as far as solutions to this epidemic. I think the man that goes around telling people about how this can be prevented is the best option. Maybe if more people participated in this and really pushed the issue that it is a permanent virus that will eventually kill you and not a curse, African people may have the opportunity to get this all under control.

US response to hiv/aids.

I honestly think that the US is doing as much as they can to help find a cure for this disease. Even though they've been unsuccessful, they really rate trying to help the people that get infected with this disease. They can't really control that over 40,000 people in the US that are infected with this disease become immune to the medication that is prescribed to them. Even after this occurs, they prescribe them medication that may even help in the slightest degree. In Uganda and Thailand, the reaction was made quickly and research was done but there was such a lack of information it was not taken as seriously as it should have been. It was also not treated as it should be. The US definitely reacted in a better matter than Uganda and Thailand, even though they didn't come up with a cure, they did/do a better job of controlling the spread and they have a better grip on what it is and what can keep a person alive.

hiv/aids.

As far as I'm concerned, HIV and AIDS is a big epidemic in America that should really be monitored more closely than it already is. Something has to change because the rates are constantly increasing rather than decreasing. These life long diseases have not directly affected me and don't mean much to me other than protecting myself against them. It's really scary that a lot of people that have HIV don't even know that they have it in the first place and can easily transmit it to anyone else. I have a friend that everyone in her family is HIV positive because her mom was a drug user and all her kids were born with it but she's the only one who doesn't have it. I was talking to her about it one time and she made the comment, "I wouldn't even care if I did get it." That really spoke to me in regards of how unknowledgeable the world really is about HIV and AIDS and how it can affect your life and just about everything you do. This isn't something that can just go away, you are prescribed medicine that you have to take every single day. Medications for these diseases are incredibly expensive and most people don't even have the money to afford it. If they can't afford it and don't take it, it's an automatic death sentence. So, really HIV/AIDS doesn't affect me directly, but definitely could because of how many people don't even know that they have it and because of how common this disease really is. Not that I would ever get involved with anyone that would have that kind of track record, but you never know because they might not even know. America definitely needs to keep a closer watch on this epidemic within and without our country.