Miss Harris "Muckraker AIDS"

Molly Lorenz
Miss Harris
USA History II
11/5/2007
Muckraker- AIDS

AIDS, or the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is a fairly new problem that has come to us all in one way or another. It killed 11.7 million people in 16 years since it was recognized. 9 years after that, the numbers had risen to 25 million people since June 5th, 1981. 22,114 Americans a year die because of AIDS- but over in Africa, 2 million children are living with AIDS, accounting for 90% of all pediatric cases globally. Kids are dying, communities are collapsing, at best, and we do nothing. There is a myth that the only cure for AIDS is to rape an infant and still we do nothing. There are people not even getting half of their recommended dosage of anti-retroviral treatment, which happens to be the closest thing we have to a cure of AIDS, and still we do nothing. It is more likely that people in Africa will stick to their treatment then Americans, and still we do nothing. Anti-retroviral treatment is so affective, it can bring a patient who is headed for the white light back and so much more healthier in just two weeks of treatment, but we hardly ever let them. What will it take before something is done?
AIDS does not only affect gay men, as thought when it was first discovered. It is not the same thing as being HIV+. You cannot receive AIDS by touching someone. These are just not true. To contract AIDS, you must swap bodily fluids with someone who has AIDS, and even then, there is a chance you will not have AIDS in the long run. You will become HIV+ (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), meaning that you're immune system is shot. You have a greater chance of getting the flu, or a cold, and a lesser chance of recovering well fully. You right now are surrounded by germs, but you are easily fighting them off, because you are HIV-. A lot of people aren't.
Not everyone has the skills or means to go and produce or give anti-retroviral treatment to AIDS victims. Not one person has yet to find a cure. However, everyone is able to help by spreading the word about AIDS, even help the current prevention campaigns. Since there is no cure, we should be focusing on preventing it from spreading. If you look back at the Influenza Pandemic of 1918, you can see that they were interesting in storing flu samples for future generations to study to prevent another pandemic. They were focused on not contracting it themselves while they helped those who had already. We however, have not learned from the past, and those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
We can't afford, financially or as a world, to have AIDS become worse, or even equal to the influenza pandemic. It has already spread from being an epidemic into a pandemic, and it is not slowing down.