Just like most Americans HIV never really crossed my mind until someone I know had been diagnosed with the deadly disease. This person I know was just like any other person until they became a “junkie” and their sexual preferences had changed. According to studies the use of dirty needles and having multiple sex partners increases the risk of contracting a disease significantly. HIV is among the highest contracted infection in the United States, in Georgia there have been over twenty-five hundred cases of people that have been diagnosed with HIV since 2011 out of the eight million that consume the state. That is well over thirty percent of the Americans that reside as our neighbors, friends, and family and each year the numbers keep growing. Georgia is ranked one of the highest states to have so many diagnosis of HIV almost matching the national average. This person that contracted this disease was not thinking of the risks they were taking, the only thing that they were looking for was there next fix and next hook up. The drug over powered their mind and getting the high was greater than the risk of contracting a disease by the use of dirty needles or unprotected sex. Who is to say that you will not contract this deadly virus, you are the only one that can prevent this from happening to you if you know the facts and take precautions. It is time to take a stand and bring the reality of HIV out and put this could of ignorance behind us. The question arises “how do we allow the fog to clear” treatment, research, prevention and funding.
In order to allow research, prevention, and treatment to proceed funding is a must. HIV/AIDS funding is a critical component in trying to find a lasting solution to the scourge. Respective governments have had to allocate a fair share of their budgets towards research institutes, which are assigned the duty of finding out the best medicine that would do away with the disease once and for all. Most developing
Cited: Funding for HIV and AIDS http://www.avert.org/funding-hiv-and-aids.html HIV and AIDS Vaccines http://www.avert.org/hiv-and-aids-vaccine.html High-Impact HIV Prevention: CDC 's Approach to Reducing HIV Infections in the United States http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/policies/hip.html Wilson Jacque 2014 March 06 Second baby possibly 'cured ' of HIV http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/06/health/hiv-baby-cured/index.html