Aids & Sex education essays

Aids & Sex education essays AIDS is a disorder in which the immune system loses its effectiveness, leaving the body defenseless against bacterial, viral, fungal, parasitic, cancerous and other diseases. The danger from AIDS comes from the infections that begin when the immune system no longer functions effectively. The intervention for dealing with AIDS which I have chosen to describe is the Retrovir brand Zidovudine (AZT or ZDV). Retrovir belongs to a class of anti-HIV drugs called Nucleoside Reverse Transcription Inhibitors (NRTIs). Zidovudine is not a cure for HIV/AIDS; it acts to inhibit the reproduction of HIV in the body. The HIV virus can still be transmitted to others during therapy with this medication. This intervention is consistent with the disease view of dealing with health because Zidovudine deals with the symptoms of HIV once it has been diagnosed. The disease view is contrasted with the individual determinants view of health whereupon health is seen as resulting from many factors, and by altering one of these factors (see Part B), a persons risk of contracting the HIV virus is decreased. Once prescribed to Zidovudine the basic requirement of the patient is that they take one 300mg tablet twice a day. This is a small but reasonably insignificant behavioral change; although presumably once diagnosed with HIV most patients will cease high-risk behaviour such as unsafe sex in order to prevent transmission of the virus to others. Under the disease view of health, treatment for HIV/AIDS begins once the patient has contracted the virus. The number of people taking Zidovudine is restricted to those that have been diagnosed with HIV. The policy of making free condoms accessible to high school students as a preventative treatment against HIV/AIDS addresses the problem from the individual determinants view. It focuses on identifying the underlying risk factors for HIV/AIDS and beginning at ground l...