Incurable Contagious Diseases

DVyschard L. Graham
Mrs. Jennifer Duda
English IV Honors
December 12, 2012
Disease Awareness and Prevention
“Death in early childhood was a heartbreaking fact of life everywhere until the early twentieth century. Gravestones from the nineteenth century and earlier commemorate the death before the end of their first decade of life of between a quarter and half of all the children born into most families. Nearly all died of contagious diseases.” (Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society | 2004 | John M.) Everyone knows what an incurable disease(virus) is, but not many know the reality of how contagious, deadly, and undetectable these diseases can be(not to be confused with chronic diseases which are usually hereditary). The severity of this subject is often overlooked and many people suffer due to their own ignorance. A lot of people get this arrogant idea that they’re invincible and have a false sense of security, thinking that these diseases can’t or won’t ever infect them. So they tend to act careless, and this is only the beginning to the problem. There are a variety of common and uncommon contagious incurable diseases such as; Hepatitis A,B, & C, HIV/AIDS, HPV and many more diseases which are transferred in many different ways such as blood to blood contact, saliva, air, sexual contact, skin, and even food. Most of the problem lies in those of us who have them and either don’t know or don’t tell anyone about their condition. Some aren’t all that deadly, some are just tedious and embarrassing which can be even worse than the ones that would kill you. There are even those who have long term effects and some leave you more susceptible to different types of cancer so just be ware.
The Idea that you’re unsusceptible to these diseases is a big mistake. People think that because the person looks healthy and happy that they’re clean and have nothing to worry about. The truth is that a lot of these diseases can be in your system for months at a time before showing signs of infection. These include diseases such as HIV, and Hepatitis. Some are visible one day and invisible the next and appear and disappear randomly throughout your lifetime. Diseases like this include: Herpes, Genital warts and HPV. So you can’t always tell by looking and the odds of you coming into contact with these diseases increase every year as more and more people become infected. “More than 25 million people have died from AIDS since 1981. In 2007, it is estimated that there were 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS, 2 million people died from AIDS and that 2.7 million people were newly infected with HIV.” (The PeaceJam Foundation)
There’s even an ancestral effect with these diseases that can cause effects within your bloodline (children/grandchildren). The virus can be spread to your children from the mother during pregnancy, child birth and or breast feeding. There’s a 1 in 4 chance (25%) that the mother will transfer the disease to her children but there are steps that can be taken to prevent it from happening. Doctors have treatments to prevent the virus from spreading to the child by using antiretroviral drugs. Doctors recommend that all pregnant women get tested for any diseases as part of their routine pregnancy care. But something interesting I found out was that there are rare cases that a family passes down a disease so much that their DNA code develops an immunity to the disease and their children are no longer effected by the disease. It makes me think that although there are no commonly known cures, there’s still hope that eventually we’ll evolve and overcome these diseases as a whole.

The world doesn’t just deal with diseases it already knows, new diseases are discovered in remote areas and due to the frequent trafficking of food and people around the world they seem to be distributed all over in only a few months. It can take years to find a cure for the ones that are curable so by that time the disease has already tripled its infection rate. So while yes they have a cure and everything seems fine, there are some countries where the diseases have spread most and they don’t have enough supplies for everyone so many die before they can be helped, and some suffer just long enough to the point that the damage has become irreversible and they have to live the rest of their lives in pain/suffering until death sets them free. So not only do you have to be careful of diseases you’re familiar with, you must be aware that there may be some out there that have yet to be discovered.
The most common form of contagious incurable diseases falls under the wide category of STD’s or sexual transmitted diseases. Although many STD’s can be transmitted through ways other than sex, the easiest and more habitual way that these diseases are transferred is unprotected sexual activities. HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, & HPV are all examples of the incurable STD’s that are spread thick around the world. 1 in 4 teens that are sexually active will get an STD and the chances of it being an incurable disease depends on where he or she was being sexually active. In places like Continents like Africa and Asia your chances are higher than if you were in North America or Europe.
“The prevention and care of sexually transmitted disease is an intervention which improves the health status of the population and prevents HIV transmission. Consequently UNAIDS and WHO recommend that high priority be given to the development of programs directed at this goal.”(UNAIDS) There is way to avoid becoming another statistic and it has been supported by the government and funded by tax dollars. They’ve found a way to implement these into our everyday lives as well as the lives or our children.