The Age of AIDS Study Guide Part 2 (KEY) Part 2

Africans migrate en mass to South African in search of jobs next to the hostels where the men live are brothels where AIDS is spread through the population when Mandela is released from Jail, 1% of the South African population had been infected with AIDS but the government did very little to combat the growing epidemic over the following four years in 1984, Mandela saw his job being mostly that of reconciliation and led his vice president to take the helm of the AIDS fight during the five years that president Mandela was in office, he rarely discussed AIDS as infections where doubling on a yearly basis within his country Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992 promising to take the lead in the AIDS fight, in stark contrast to Reagan HIV was thought to be dormant for several years before infection but scientists found out that it replicated by the billions on a daily basis starting on the first day of infection, it just took a long time before these actions progressed to compromise the immune system replication of HIV isnt a perfect process, as such, drug resistance is a given in 1996, the triple cocktail developed by the team working under Dr. David Ho shows incredible promise against the AIDS virus, the cost was 16 thousand dollars a year by 1996, 20 million Africans where infected with HIV with no way of affording the cost of treatment, which lead to an enormous moral question being asked AIDS patients in the United States with health care could afford the drugs but not those without it while in Brazil the triple cocktail is freely available to anybody who needs it, yet its banned in South Africa Brazil had 500 thousand infected AIDS patients in the 1990s, the government built the AIDS clinics in poor neighborhoods but it wasnt until a patient brought the government to court did they provide the triple cocktail to their population AZT can prevent transmission between mother and child President Mbeki continues to see that AIDS is an environmental and social disease, infection rates are now to 20% within the population which was completely preventable infection rates within the black communities skyrocketed while they stabilized in the rest of the American population 40% of new AIDS infections come from IV drug users within the United States AIDS becomes a global pandemic which is met with absolute ignorance many governments around the world who deny its existence 20 million people died by the end of the 1990s by HIV/AIDS infections while most of the international community still looked the other way in the late 1990s, President Mbeki repeats his denials about AIDS, saying its caused by poverty, not a virus during the first AIDS conference in Africa the pharmaceutical industry stand behind their intellectual property rights behind the AIDS drugs they had developed at the cost of poor peoples lives George Bush creates a 15 billion dollar PEPFAR fund to help provide free AIDS drugs to Africans dying of AIDS to sidestep the UN Global Fund pushed by Kofi Annan

United States leadership still think that AIDS was a consequence of sinful behavior, as a result, not their problem, hence funds where released with strings attached in 2002 Christians see AIDS as an opportunity to spread the word of God to dying patients around the world UN Global Fund against AIDS targeted over 160 countries while the Bush plan concentrated on mostly African countries SARS in China affected the global community to open transparency about health problems disease, for the first time, seen as a situation that can affect economic and national security of a country triple cocktail needs to be taken for life as the infection returns afterwards, HIV never go away from a persons body, you can suppress it but not eradicate it Bushs AIDS plan relies on prevention, where 20% of funds are allocated and shies away from direct sexual talk such as condom use prostitution, homosexuality and condom distribution are no-nos regarding receiving funds from the Bush administration the challenges posed by AIDS are far and wide with the implications of an entire global community relying on a constant supply these life saving drugs triple cocktail users live up to 8 years longer on the drugs but the costs take up a large portion of government health care budgets in 2008, both the UN and US funds against AIDS run out 95% of new infections take place in poor countries with 40 million in new infections over the next several years drugs and treatment programs cannot keep-up with infection rates India already has 5 million infections HIV spreads among mostly heterosexual populations now 5 million new cases per year, no cure and no vaccine exists current generation dont know the face or challenges with AIDS, they tend to think its a manageable disease with little consequences, which is false AIDS fight is now towards mitigation, not beating it as too many have died and are being infected daily Nelson Mandelas son has died from AIDS AIDS shows how interconnected we really are