AIDS :: Free AIDS Essays

AIDSThe United Nations AIDS organization released disturbing estimates Thursdayof the manifestly relentless expansion of the human immunodeficiency virus pandemic.At a time when many Americans are increasingly optimistic that state-of-the-art drug therapy might eliminate the virus, HIV is taking a heavy toll worldwide.According to the agency, every minute of every day somewhere in the world,six people become infected with HIV 7,500 adults per day and 1,000 children.About 30 million people have acquired the virus during the last 15 years 6.4million of them have died of AIDS.Behind this attach death count are the signs of growing social disruption.For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, more than 1 million children have lost theirparents to AIDS. And within four years, there will be more than 2 million AIDSorphans in the following seven countries combined Dominican Republic, Kenya,Rwanda, Thailand, Uganda, the United States, and Zambia.Illness and death among immature adults due to H IV have reached such proportionsin some countries that over every last(predicate) national economics and productivity are affected.In Uganda, for example, 44 percent of all premature deaths are attributable toAIDS. In terms of years of labor productivity, AIDS is responsible for more than66 percent of Ugandas economically significant losses.The virus is also spreading into new areas. For example-During the last three years, HIV-infection rates among Vietnameseprostitutes jumped from 9 percent to 38 percent.-Infection rates among blood donors in the Kampuchean capital of Phnom Penhhave soared from 0.1 percent to more than 10 percent.-In the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Nikolayev, HIV-infection rates amongnarcotics users exploded in 1995, jumping from a 1.7 percent in January to 56.5percent in November.-South Africa, long spared, is now being overrun.