On Wednesday doctors gathered in Washington to discuss the AIDs epidemic in America before opening a national summit on AIDs. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop was the physician that put the spot light on the AIDs epidemic about three decades ago and is back to show to everyone that the AIDs epidemic has not gone away since then. Koop is now 94 years old but still knows his facts and says "The war against HIV/AIDS is far from over." With over 1 million Americans living with AIDs, it is still considered an epidemic, and one that kills 18,000 people a year. This disease has come a long way from where it was when it first became an epidemic thanks to modern medicine, but is still prevalent in the states.
The article in the Boston news can be found at:
http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2010/11/17/koop_aids_is_the_forgotten_epidemic/
AIDs have affected the world and have been a pandemic for many years. Many world efforts have been made to stop the spread of AIDs and to treat the victims of the disease, but as shown in the facts it has not been enough. There are many other current diseases around the world that are more prevalent today, but that does not mean we should stop our efforts on AIDs. We should fight each disease off one at a time. I can understand if countries with no sexual education or birth control have a higher numbers of AIDs victims, but to still see a large amount in America where most people have access to medical attention shows that we are not doing something right.
In the book Mountains Beyond Mountain AIDs is one of the more common diseases that they treat in the hospital in Haiti. I agree with Koop in that the efforts against AIDs is slacking and people should become more aware of how it still effects places like America today.
Stephanie, I really liked your choice of an article. I thought it was resourceful of you to link it back to Mountains Beyond Mountains. It is surprising and sad that although AIDS has been around for so long, it remains such a large problem.
ReplyDeleteI really like this article. It's so true that people in America have seem to forgotten about AIDS as an epidemic that's plaguing the world. It seems America does that with a lot of diseases because everything is relatively good here, so people don't care to worry about other places. It was a very good choice of article to help highlight this lack of concern from America.
ReplyDeleteStephanie your article was very well written. I agree with Abby that your link to Mountains Beyond Mountains was a very nice idea and quite useful. I think that we need to focus more on AIDS research because it is such a big problem around the world.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this article. I was just rereading the section in Mountains Beyond Mountains where Dr.Paul Farmer gives his AIDS patient a medication that costs $5,000. But in America AIDS is often forgotten in America. I often associate with poorer countries, not in America. I agree with Adam in that more needs to be done to find a way to cure AIDS, because it is a problem all over the world. Americans need to focus on eliminating not only in other countries, but here too. I think that education is key on stopping the AIDS epidemic in America.
ReplyDeleteReally cool article! I loved your connection to "Mountains Beyond Mountains". I think that AIDS is a huge issue even in America still, and that even though there are birth control options to prevent the spread of AIDS, people still contract the disease and something needs to be done. I love the urgent tone of this article; it's time to take action to fight AIDS!
ReplyDeleteI really like your choice in article because AIDS is a disease that is very prevalent today. Diseases like small pox and polio are important to study, but they are not as relatable to modern times. We have all heard about AIDS in the news and it is something that is greatly affected the world right now. I also really like your connection to "Mountains Beyond Moutains."
ReplyDeleteIt's so interesting that even though Koop is 94 years old he is stil committed to fighting AIDS and is still very aware of what is going on with fighting the disease. You're right, it is sad that in a country like America with so many health care opportunites that AIDS is still in such high numbers. You tend to hear of cases of AIDS in other countries, not America, but it is important to recognize that there are also a lot of cases in America.
ReplyDeleteI really like what Stephanie said about how it is understandable for countries without much sexual education to have some higher rates of AIDs, but in America there is so much information available for everyone. One would think that the rates would be much lower for the disease than they actually are. It is also sort of a sad realization that even though the United States are so advanced, we still have problems like this. Hopefully the future will be brighter on this topic.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this article because it seems as though AIDs really is forgotten to a lot of people. More people think of an epidemic and they think of people sick with cholera or other diseases in other countries but AIDs is prevelant in America and we should put more focus on it so that we can stop it. I think it is great that doctors and people are making sure that they dont forget AIDs and they are being more poractive about raising awareness and stopping the disease.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Adam. AIDS is definatly a disease that everyone should be aware of and educated about. Research of this disease is very important because we still do not know of any cures. I agree that AIDS is a forgotten disease. not many people realize how much this disease affects our own nation, not to mention the world.
ReplyDeleteI had definetly put the thought that America still has a large ammount of AIDS cases in the back of my mind. I think that we just get so caught up in helping other countries that are suffering a lot worse than we are and sometimes forget that we are fighting the same battle here. I agree with you Abby, I tend to also associate AIDS with poorer countries because they have a lot less resources than we do and there are many campaigns and groups to help stop AIDS in less fortunate countries. I don't think I've ever seen an advertisment or flyer for AIDS here in America..... I believe that we should help ourselves first before we can help others. Or maybe there should be a broader focus on AIDS. Instead of just focusing on one specific area, people should focus on the world as a whole becaue everywhere is affected by AIDS.
ReplyDelete