AIDS/HIV A Cure

8 Pages 2058 Words

rted that the number of deaths from AIDS in the U.S. has dropped by a record 47 percent. Officials attributed the reduction to an extremely effective combination drug treatment that allows people infected with HIV to live longer and healthier lives. Unfortunately, no such decline occurred in the number of new HIV infections in the United States. The infection rate remained at about 40,000 new cases a year.

Although the U.S. has a great deal of AIDS cases, it doesn¹t even come close to the numbers of cases that are in Africa. Of the 30 million people worldwide with AIDS, 21 million live in Africa. More than 16 percent of South Africa’s 40 million people are infected with the HIV virus. The infection level among South Africans between the ages of 20 to 30 years of age already exceeds 20 percent. Everyday new infections are being reported at a rate of 1,500 -- two-thirds of them range around the ages of 15 to 20 year-olds. Health experts say this means that the age group once thought to be the most receptive to AIDS awareness messages already is heavily infected. Although HIV is running rampant in South Africa, many people do not understand or believe how deadly it is until it is too late.

In the past years, the government of South Africa has made AIDS prevention a high-profile priority. Some people believe only the prostitutes get AIDS. Some men glorify the virtues of fat women in the mistaken belief that only thin women can transmit AIDS. Some women beli...