S.+Munoz

Outline I. Introduction II. History of Aids A. The origins of the Aids virus B. Aids: The gay disease C. Aids in our Modern time III. Biology of Aids A.Getting the Aids virus B.What the aids virus causes C.Treatment of Aids IV. Life with Aids A.living with aids B.Laws, and aids C.Struggling with aids V.Conclusion

Bibliography

Feldman, D. (1998). //The AIDS crisis//. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. This book outlines the history of the Aids virus from its first cases till today’s epidemic. It contains many facts about aids, and information about the disease that though wildly available collects it into a coherent form. This book leans more to the historical facts of it in America, and not too much about the modern aids epidemic.

Kalichman, S. (1998). //Preventing AIDS: A Sourcebook for Behavioral Interventions//. New Hersey, London : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. This book has a focus on the prevention of aids in general. IT contains information about safe sex, abstinence, and many levels of intervention that can help one prevent Aids from transferring amongst people.

Hunter, S. (2006). //AIDS in America//. England: Palgrave MacMillan. This book is a bit more specific with the aids epidemic due to it focusing on a young single mother in America who contracted aids. It has allot of information, and ideas about aids though it also contains many other debates like the abstinence only sex education programs, and allot of other stuff that ties in with the American aids epidemic.

//Worldwide AIDS & HIV Statistics Including Deaths//. (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2009, from http://www.avert.org/worldstats.htm This is just a small statistical analysis of aids in an Internet article. It’s good to have the straight stats of the aids problems included with history and facts though there are not much to say about it without further research.

The Graying of AIDS. (2006, August 6). //time//. Retrieved October 30, 2009, from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1223367,00.html This is a times article about the aids virus surviving in people that are older, and the difficulties found in the virus included with old age. This also shows that older people who have sex tend to not have safe sex, which causes a high risk for spreading the virus.

I. Introduction

My project is on the history of aids, the social stigma that aids has created, and the changing of society as a whole through the aids epidemic. I chose the idea of the history of aids because it was on that has built allot of the societal behavior in the America of this millennium. Whole ideas on sex, promiscuity, gays, and drugs have changed due to the aids epidemic that is ever increasing in America and many places around the world that are still more impoverished then we could imagine. This includes the recent surge of sexual health classes that involve more then just reminding to abstain from sex instead opting to talk about proper protection what the diseases one can get, and many other things that would be dismissed as useless to teach to the young population.

The other part that is very interesting in the whole Aids epidemic is that it was once believe to be a gay illness, that only affected young gay youths from the ages of 18-25. This caused a huge stigma in the gay community which caused greater tension between them, and dissenters of the homosexual life style. This could be something that I'm willing to research more since the aids epidemic has influenced are society more then one can think, and it's still affects us all the time. Every time someone makes a joke about being very promiscuous they tend to say something along the lines of "Man, you must got the aids now". It would be interesting thing to research.

II. History of Aids

Aids was first documented amongst gay men around 1981 this acquired it the name GRID( gay-related immunity deficiency). Though later the disease was found through scientists to exist before hand in many 3rd world countries. This was due to a discovery of an African man who died of a mysterious illness in 1969 which scientist later found that his blood contained the Aids virus. The disease was primarily known as a gay disease in america which caused stigma for the gay community, but when the disease later started moving to junkie, heterosexuals, and some who recieved blood transfusions, it became less stigmatized. Once this happens, and scientists find the retrovirus that causes "grid" they changed the name into HIV/aids. In 1987 the first time that Aids got a treatment to help those in needs, and Ronald Reagan finally uses aids in a public speech which finally talked about it. In the recent years (2000-2009) there has been so many strides in the AIDS movement both health wise, and social. AIDS has become more and more mainstream thus many more people are aware of its harmful nature that even most condom companies talk about the effectiveness against STDs.

III. Biology of Aids

The AIDS virus has many ways to get it, and many myths that have been told of ways to get it. The common ways to get it are sexual contact, sharing contaminated intravenous needles, breast feeding, infected mother to a fetus while pregnancy, and blood transfusion that aren't screened for HIV's before hand. Though these are ways that are always told to people there are some myths of how to contract it also like getting it from tears, saliva, sweat, insects, using the same toilet seat, swimming in the same pool, touching, and being near people with the virus. AIDS is a disease that is very fatal, but in reality AIDS is not exactly the factor that kills, it first starts with HIV. HIV first enters the body through any sexual contact, or event where blood is transferred. Later the HIV invades ones immune system cells then reprograms them to become HIV cell factories this leads to AIDS finally forming in the body. Though AIDS is now in the body, it isn't what actually what kills what really happens is AIDS makes one more susceptible to different infection which cannot be fought off due to the fact that all the immune systems has become HIV factories. Though there are no cures for AIDS there are some treatments, and some have proven to work but many have yet to truly quantify if they work or not. They may be a placebo effect, or maybe actually works.

IV. Life with Aids

Life with AIDS is was a very difficult thing when the first cases started appearing back in 1981 because of the high amount of stigma that the illness caused due to it's connotation of being both a gay disease and a sexually transmitted disease. It was hard for allot of people too acknowledge the disease as important outside of the scientific and gay community. This has made many changes since then due to many things such as many stars and heroes dying or contracting the disease, and soon it became less stigmatized. Now the number of people living with HIV(thus AIDS) has risen from around 8 million in 1990 to 33 million today, and is still growing. Around 67% of people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa. This great increase with both hetero and homosexual men and women having the virus has caused greater awareness of the disease, and a greater fight against it. AIDS has also spawned many laws to protect the carriers, and to protect those from the carries. The laws involve no discrimination to AIDS carriers, and charging carriers criminally if they have unprotected sex without telling their partner of their knowledge of having the HIV virus. Though there are rules and great amount of people wih the virus, there is still a great struggle living with, and the amount of deaths every year due to AIDS related illnesses is an amount rivaling the population of Chicago(the third largest city in the United states). This struggle to keep alive, and to not be discriminated by people for having it is quite hard though it is getting easier it has yet to be completely free of prejudice.

V. Conclusion

AIDS is stilling killing people everyday, and there are still very little strides happening in combating HIV and AIDS medically. Though everyday changes are made for those who have it, there is still a long way to go for there to be a true change in the American deals with the virus. The history of aids even though being less then a century old has already influenced everything from popular media to the campaigns from condom companies to music, the biology of how the virus works has made many strides in the scientific community in the same amount of time, and people living with aids have gotten many changes and accommodations to make it easier to live life with the virus. Maybe one day these strides will continue forward to cure it so there will be no more fear, and the less then a century history of the disease closes its book.