AIDS & the Public Health Service
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AIDS is at present the number one priority of the Public Health Service. It affects the lives not only of those afflicted but the lives of their families, friends, and millions of people who merely fear the disease, which is always fatal. At present there is no cure and only experimental treatments which seem to stave off the more severe manifestations of the syndrome for a time. From a public health standpoint, education seems to be the most valid and effective means to fight the spread of the disease, along with possible programs to change habits of intravenous drug abusers who are at risk because they share needles. The dissemination of information about the disease and methods of transmission appears to be the only real defense against it at the present time. AIDS is a disease that has altered a number of societal practices and patterns in a relatively short time. The disease has been known widely for no more than about 20 years, and in that time it has had a profound effect on human sexual behavior in Western society. Not every community or group is affected by AIDS in the same way, which is also one reason the scientific, medical, and governmental response was so slow in developing. AIDS has had its greatest effect in what are considered by many to be marginal communities rather than the mainstream, marginal in the sense of minority and stigmatized, like the homosexual community and the population that uses illegal intravenous drugs. Arguably, it was only wit
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condom distribution are high rates of teenage pregnancy and the fear of the spread of AIDs. For adolescents, safe sexual behavior recommendations have included abstinence and postponement of sex. For those who are sexually active, "the advice has been to limit the number of partners, ideally to one mutually faithful partner; to use condoms consistently and correctly for all acts of intercourse; to refrain from unsafe practices such as anal sex; and to learn about the sex histories of prospective partners" (Poppen, 1994, 503). The issue of teenage pregnancy has been given considerable attention for some time, while the spread of AIDs beginning in the late 1980s caused much greater concern about STDs (sexually-transmitted diseases) in this population in general.
School condom availability programs have caused both strong support and strong opposition. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American School Health Association, and the National Medical Association have all adopted policies recommending that condoms be made available to adolescents as part of comprehensive school health programs, while groups such as the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, and the Rutherford Institute strongly opp
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1385
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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