HIV/AIDS and society have a very
complicated relationship. Stigmas in society about AIDS cause stumbling blocks
for the eradication of HIV/AIDS. AIDS causes problems within society. The moral taboos attached to AIDS have caused
many people to remain silent about the disease they are carrying, therefore
allowing further proliferation of the disease. AIDS and sex are often seen as
one. We see these moral taboos in countries that are mainly religious based. In
these countries citizens carrying HIV/AIDS are assumed to have contracted the
disease through loose sex and “deviant” sex. There are times when people
contract the disease, and they have been monogamous. Sometimes a spouse will
marry an individual with the disease and not know it. They then receive the
disease from that individual. If others in society find out that that
individual has AIDS there is often a stigma of unmoral sexual behavior placed
on an individual who has only been true to their spouse. Another false stigma
that was placed on individuals with HIV/AIDS was that they were homosexuals.
“Federal
health officials and experts came up with a succession of names for the disease
before they settled on acquired immune deficiency syndrome in 1982. (Some of
the early efforts smacked of discrimination, like GRID, for gay-related immune
deficiency.) But whatever it was called, it carried a bitter stigma.” (Altman,
N.Y. Times) Although there is an unfair assumption that homosexuality is
strictly a gay disease, the facts do show that a large percentage of those with
HIV/AIDS are in fact gay. According to
the City Health Department, 3,926 cases of AIDS have been reported in the city,
59 percent of them among homosexual or bisexual men; most of the rest come from
a variety of risk groups, including intravenous drug users and the sex partners
or children of those who have AIDS.( Collins, N.Y. Times) Even though these
numbers are high, it is unfair to assume that everyone who is infected is a
homosexual. There are other causes of HIV/AIDS being spread.
Drugs
and the reuse of dirty needles is a way the disease can spread. Drugs are often
done in a community setting. People will get together and shoot up. All it
takes is for an individual with the infection to use the needle then share that
needle with a friend. “Our government (America government) has refused to
support the provision of clean needles, even though injection with dirty
needles has been estimated by the Centers for Disease Control to be responsible
for more than 250,000 HIV infections and more than half of the pediatric AIDS
cases in the United States.”(Charon, Vigilant, 336) Another problem is not the
actual sharing of needles but rather hard users selling themselves for drugs or
money to buy drugs. These facts often reinforce stereotypes about AIDS, and
these labels often give those uneducated about the disease an unhealthy fear of
it. They assume that the “unmoral” of society are responsible for the spread of
the disease. So far we have looked at HIV/AIDS with a lens focused on
homosexuality and drug users, but there are many different focuses one can take
when looking at this disease.
Children
in Africa have paid a high price in the spread of the disease. According to
“Time U.S.” seventeen million Africans have perished since the onset of the
disease and out of that number over three million are children. Not only are
the children suffering from the disease itself, they are also being orphaned
because their parents are dying due to AIDS. Over twelve million children have
been orphaned because of the disease, and many potential parents will not adopt
them because they fear contraction of the disease from these kids. It is hard
to attach sexual deviance to these innocent children who are suffering from the
effects of HIV/AIDS. Multiple generations are finding that they are paying the
price for the effects of their parents. It is not right for society to attach
negative labels to people who are innocent. Society must be educated so that
society can help those who are suffering. Fear causes society to neglect and
exclude these individuals. Education about the HIV/AIDS epidemic will help
squash the stigmas attached to the deadly disease. Those suffering from the
disease are not the only ones paying the price of HIV/AIDS.
Countries
across the globe have to pay fiscally for the health of those living within
their borders. To keep HIV/AIDS in check governments must come up with programs
for education, prevention, and treatment cost money. Clean needle programs for
those using drugs have proven to reduce AIDS within the drug community. This
cuts the cost of having to pay for treatment. There is also the need to educate
those who do not suffer from the disease. Education will keep people from
excluding those who have the disease. If there is a larger support group for
those infected than we can show those people with the disease that they do not
need to keep their illness a secret. People fear isolation if that fear is
taken away then these people can be open with others so that the disease will
not be spread due to ignorance. There are many people who do not even get
tested because they fear what others will think of them. There is an artist,
David LaChapelle, who for fifteen years thought he was going to die from AIDS.
He refused to get tested and just assumed that he was going to die. After all
that time he finally got tested and realized that he did not have the disease.
Although he was lucky, there are many people who live the same way; yet they
have the disease and spread the disease. To abolish this mindset society must
make it alright for someone to live openly with the disease. According to
Carole Leach-Lemens if we do not educate society, it is estimated that by 2031
the global cost of treatment of AIDS will be thirty-five billion dollars a
year. Social change is our best hope to contain this disease and prevent it
from hurting further generations.
In
this paper we look at the relationship of HIV/AIDS and society. We saw
misconceptions of the origins of the disease within the homosexual community.
We also saw that sexual deviance is not the only way HIV/AIDS is spread. There
are many good people and children who suffer from the effects of AIDS, and if
we do not come to a better understanding of the disease then it will continue
to harm others in the near and far future. Not only is there a fiscal cost
attached to this disease, there is also a cost to our humanity when we let this
disease ravage our planet.
Work Cited
Page
1. 30 Years
in, We are still learning from AIDS, M.D. Lawrence Altman, New York Times, May
30 2011
2. Impact of
AIDS: Patterns of Homosexual Life Changing, Glenn Collins, New York Times, 1985
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