For one infectious disease you have studied, describe its impact on health, economic development and lifestyle on an area studied
AIDS is caused by HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, which damages the body’s defence system. People who have AIDS become weaker because their bodies lose the ability to fight all illnesses and they eventually die, as there is no cure for AIDS. The onset of AIDS can take up to 10 years from the time of infection with the HIV virus. Therefore a person may look/feel healthy for years. This is bad because with them not showing symptoms strongly, they may unwarily transmit the virus to others during this time, spreading the disease easier.
HIV can infect anyone but is most common in: people who inject themselves with drugs, people who do not use ‘barrier method birth control’, girls (specifically those who are sexually active with an infected partner), and children whose mother had HIV whilst being pregnant. At the moment there are 12 million children who have been orphaned because of HIV/AIDS.
HIV/AIDS is now found in every country in the world but is majority found in Africa. There are 25 million living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, which is almost 70% of the world total. 38.8% of adults in Swaziland are infected by HIV which is unbelievable. Since 1999, life expectancy in Sub-Saharan Africa has declined in 38 countries by years less than it would be without HIV/AIDS, and could soon be reduced to 30 years.
HIV/AIDS is undoing decades of health, social and economic progress and making poverty worse. Absence of workers due to death and illness from HIV/AIDS has reduced the annual economic growth in some African countries by up to 2%, and the loss of workforce is only predicted to get worse which will further slow the economic progress. Individual families will suffer from reduced income whilst costs for medicine, food and funerals rise. Education systems are also threatened by a lack of government funding, resources, and a loss of skilled workforce.
HIV/AIDS are also very common in your girls as a result of the position of women in their societies. Young girls are forced to be married off and made pregnant by men likely twice their age,
