Article Summary

Thirty Years of AIDS in America:

A Story of Infinite Hope

My summary: Finding a specific way to promote AIDS is challenging. This is because AIDS is often target towards homosexual and bisexual males. According to statistics, homosexuals and bisexuals being targeted towards AIDS is stereotypical. AIDS mainly exist among Caucasians, then African Americans, and last Hispanics. Steps to promoting AIDS prevention is recognizing AIDS in the community, develop community approach, and eliminate racism. Some people affected with AIDS cannot receive treatment because they have not received any symptoms. It cost money to develop programs for AIDS prevention.

Responding to Homophobia: HIV/AIDS,

Homosexual Community Formation and Identity

in Queensland, 1983_1990

Summary: In Queensland, the gay and lesbian community was considered an outcast in the community. They gays and lesbians received a lot of hate towards them and fought to get the respect they wanted. Their mission was almost complete until it was publically announced that in America, homosexual men was responsible for spreading AIDS. Ironically, homosexuals in the Queensland communities had been diagnosed with diseases that are rare forms of cancer. The Queensland AIDS Committee held meetings to inform the gay and lesbian comitees on the epidemic. AIDS broke out in the homosexual community and they were targeted greatly. The Queensland AIDS Committee developed ads and campaigns to promote AIDS awareness.

The President’s Emergency Plan for

AIDS Relief (PEPFAR):

A Social Work Ethical Analysis

and Recommendations

Summary: This article does not talk in details about the President’s actions to promote AIDS Prevention, but instead include supporting details on why AIDS promotion is not supported by all organizations. 15 billion dollars is going to an organization to help the number of people affected by AIDS from increasing. A current president, George W. Bush, announced the organization PEPFAR while given his State of the Union address. This plan would stop 7 million new AIDS infections and help treat 2million people with lifesaving drugs, and give care for the 10 million people who are affecting by AIDS. This plan also bring awareness to sex workers , and inform them that they are more likely to contract this disease. Because of this, countries like Brazil do not support this plan. This plan is target towards homosexual men, drug abusers and also women.  

Essential Questions

My topic is: are the methods the United States using to prevent teens from being affected by AIDS working? While researching my topic, I use five essential questions. These essentials questions help lead me in the right path to finding answers based on my topics. These questions are:

1.      Which methods is the United States using to prevent AIDS, working the most?

2.      What type of medicines have the United States created is effective on preventing AIDS?

3.      How is the United States encouraging teens to prevent AIDS?

4.      What if the United States did not have any methods? Would there be a difference in the statics of people affected by AIDS?

5.      Should teens decide on the methods the U.S. using to prevent AIDS?

6.      Why is AIDS becoming an epidemic in the United States?

My other important essential questions.

1. Is the government doing enough to promote AIDS prevention, and is their way of prevention working?

2. Should the government be involved in AIDS prevention? Would their support make a visible difference?

3. What triggered the issue of homosexuals being targeted for the source that originally spread AIDS?

4. Which minorities are being affected the most with AIDS?

5. How did AIDS really become an epidemic, is it acceptable for homosexuals to take the blame?
 

Click on this link to take my survey please:)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?pli=1&formkey=dFk4ZmwzN1R1Y0Itc0h0Rjh5WHRTbUE6MQ#gid=0

Research Memo

Aids Prevention

Hypothesis: Many teens are not aware of the disease called AIDS and that it can be contracted through sexual intercourse. This is why my research topic is: “Are the methods of prevention for AIDS that the United States is using, helping prevent teens from contracting the disease”? In my research,  I have conducted a survey towards teens and adults to analyze their knowledge on Aids and its symptoms. My results will possibly show the lack of knowledge teens and also adults have on Aids and its symptoms.

Context: My research is based on the lack of knowledge on Aids is the leading cause on why teens are contracting this vile disease. My target audience is towards mostly teens and also adults. I surveyed teens from the age range of 12-19 and also adults 20 and up. I choose these respondents because their response will be more relatable to my research topic. My questions are not worded in a way to persuade the audience to automatically support my hypothesis. I had to change my questioning in the middle of the audience because I did start off with bias questioning. For example, I asked, why do you think teens lack information about Aids? This question can be classified as, leading the audience. The person who may take my survey might no believe teens lack information about AIDS. Another example is, why do you think AIDS is an epidemic?  If I would have kept those questions, my answers would not be valid.

Results:

Number of Males that took my survey	13
Number of Females that took my survey	14
Number of people in the age group of  (12-14)	0
Number of people in the age group of (15-18)	25
Number of people in the age group of (20-30)	1
Number of people in the age group of (30+)	1

Results	Errors
Out of 27 people 9 people, (33%) believed that Aids is not a growing epidemic in the United States. The survey takers are between the age group (15-18).	I should have survey more students in the age group (12-14), to justify my opinion more that teens are not aware that Aids is a growing epidemic.
Out of 27 people 18 people, (66%) believed that Aids is a growing epidemic in the United States. Those people are in the age group of (15-18), (20-30), and (30+).	I did not include the age 19 in any of the age groups.
Out of 27 people, about 62% believed that education is most important when it comes to raising awareness about Aids.
Out of 27 people, about 38% believes that sharing of personal experience is most important when it comes to raising awareness about Aids.
Out of 27 people, about 96% believes that Aids is a growing epidemic in the United States.	I should have included a “not sure” answer choice for this survey question.
Out of 27 people, 70% of people know someone that is or have been affected by Aids, 19% are related to someone that is affected or has been affected by Aids, and 11% know and are related to someone that is affected or has been affected by Aids.	I should include a “none of the above” answer choice for this survey.  This will ensure that my answers are validated and students were not just choosing because there was not an answer choice available to fit their answer.
On average, females’ knowledge on Aids rank 3 out of 1-4 with 4 being the greatest and 1 being the least. Most females rank their knowledge with a 4. On average, males’ knowledge on Aids rank a 3 out of 1-4 with 4 being the greatest and 1 being the least. Most males rank their knowledge with a 3.
Out of 27 people, about 4% believes that Aids is not a growing epidemic in the United States.
Out of 27 people, about 27 % believed that parents are responsible for educating teens about Aids and its prevention. Twenty four percent believed it was is teachers’ job, 16% believed it was the medias’ job, 8% believed it is our peers job, and 25% believed is the doctors’ job.
Out of 27 people, about 78% do not hear about Aids in the media often, about 15% says they hear it in the media often and 7% was unsure.
Out of 27 people, about 93% believed that teens should have a valuable input on the methods the United States use to prevent Aids. About 7% believes that teens should not have a valuable input on the methods the United States use to prevent Aids.

Data Analysis:

·         In my survey; I noticed that males and females believed that education is most important when raising awareness about AIDS. The question was stating, “What is most important when raising awareness about aids”? The answer choices were education, advertisements, and personal experiences. On average, 62% chosen that education is most important when raising awareness about Aids. I believe this occurs because education is always the key to informing someone about a topic, especially a controversial topic such as AIDS. Personal experience and advertisement can only be understood if someone knows the information about the topic.

·         In my survey I asked: “Do you believe that AIDS is a growing epidemic in the United States.” Those who did believe AIDS is a growing epidemic in the United States are either related to someone or knew someone who is affected with Aids.  I believe this is a trend because people who know someone or related to someone can see first-hand the issues somebody with AIDS can have and how serious and dangerous the disease actually is. If someone does not know a person or persons with the disease, then they will not take the disease seriously.

·         In my survey, I asked, “Should teens have a valuable input on the methods the United States use to prevent aids?” Most males believed that teens should not have a valuable input on the methods in the United States to prevent Aids. Their response was related to a statement like: “teens do not care”. The males who believed that teens do not care also ranked their knowledge of AIDS as a 2. That shows that because they do not know enough information about Aids, they do not know how greatly it is affecting not only adults, but also teens and even babies.

Conclusion: My hypothesis was that teens are lacking knowledge of AIDS. Based on my results, my hypothesis was not clearly true. Many teens did not know much about AIDS, but if I would conduct different questions, I would have gotten more valid answers. I would have a better insight on how much knowledge teens really have on AIDS. Based on the data, I can conclude that the United States does not show many ads on AIDS prevention on channels that most teens watch. Also locally, the state of South Carolina does not inform teens on AIDS and its’ prevention.   

Follow Up: The next mission I want to do with my research is to help raise awareness about AIDS and its prevention. The essential research questions I will research next are: “Will other states ways of prevents benefit South Carolina if it was to adopt that plan and how affective is AIDS awareness month?”  I want to share my story of losing my mom to AIDS to local teens and hopefully change their perspective of having unsafe sex.

Statics

The CDC estimates that by the end of 2008 there were 490,696 people living with an AIDS diagnoses in the United States and five dependent areas, around 38,000 more than 2006. Since 2000 the annual number of new AIDS diagnoses has remained relatively constant, with an estimated 34,993 in 2009. In total, an estimated 1,142,714 people have been diagnosed with AIDS in America since the beginning of the epidemic.
Just over 75% of adults and adolescents living with an AIDS diagnosis are men.

Race/ethnicity of adult and adolescents living with an AIDS diagnosis in the U.S. in 2008

As the pie chart below shows, blacks/African Americans accounted for the largest proportion of people living with an AIDS diagnosis in 2008.

Transmission category of male and female adults and adolescents living with an AIDS diagnosis in the U.S. in 2008

Almost half of male adults and adolescents living with AIDS in 2008 became infected with HIV through male-to-male sexual contact. Two-thirds of female adults and adolescents living with an AIDS diagnosis in 2008 were infected through heterosexual contact.

HIV and AIDS statistics by race/ethnicity
Blacks/African Americans accounted for half of all new HIV diagnoses and just under half of new AIDS diagnoses in 2009. Of the total number of people living with an HIV diagnosis in 2008 in the 40 U.S. states and 5 dependent areas, 46% were black/African American; 31.6% white; 20% Hispanic/Latino; 1.3% multiple races; 0.6% Asian; 0.4% American Indian/Alaska Native; and 0.04% Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander.
Among men diagnosed with AIDS in 2009, 56% of black/African American men, 65% of Hispanic/Latino men and 79% of white men became infected with HIV through male-to-male sexual contact. Among women diagnosed with AIDS in 2009, 78% of black/African American women, 75% of Hispanic/Latino women and 68% of white women became infected through heterosexual contact.

Estimated new adult and adolescent HIV and AIDS diagnoses in 2009, by race/ethnicity

Race/ethnicity	HIV			AIDS
	Males	Females	Total*	Males	Females	Total*
White	10,098	1,700	11,810	8,126	1,344	9,471
Black/African American	14,914	6,632	21,673	11,109	5,642	16,759
Hispanic/Latino	6,615	1,625	8,263	5,852	1,586	7,442
Asian	365	105	473	349	80	429
American Indian/Alaska Native	137	51	189	127	28	155
Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander	26	10	36	45	7	52
Multiple races	383	132	516	495	192	686
Total*	32,538	10,255	42,959	26,102	8,879	34,993

* Values in each column may not sum to the column total, as the column totals for estimated numbers were calculated independently of the values for the subpopulations.

Estimated HIV diagnoses by race/ethnicity and year

Race/ethnicity	Year of diagnosis
	2006	2007	2008	2009
White	12,103	12,334	11,866	11,810
Black/African American	20,696	20,953	21,730	21,673
Hispanic/Latino	8,562	8,579	8,278	8,263
Asian	366	474	466	473
American Indian/Alaska Native	163	185	193	189
Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander	47	46	34	36
Multiple races	606	631	567	516

Estimated AIDS diagnoses by race/ethnicity and year

Race/ethnicity	Year of diagnosis				All years*
	2006	2007	2008	2009
White	10,487	10,050	9,672	9,471	426,230
Black/African American	17,321	17,194	17,077	16,759	466,829
Hispanic/Latino	7,920	7,696	7,476	7,442	223,671
Asian	422	454	492	429	8,369
American Indian/Alaska Native	145	141	177	155	3,702
Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander	49	55	44	52	851
Multiple races	686	656	616	686	12,749

* Includes all years from the beginning of the epidemic through 2009.

Estimated HIV diagnoses in 2009 by race/ethnicity

Estimated AIDS diagnoses in 2009 by race/ethnicity

**This is not my findings. These statics and charts was taken from a website who's citation is underneath this notice. .
 "HIV and AIDS statistics by race/ethnicity." Internation Hiv and Aids Charity. Adverting Hiv and Aids , 2011. Web. 14 Mar 2012. <http://www.avert.org/usa-race-age.htm>.

Digital Death

This is one way celebrity’s’ campaigned their supports for people who are affect with HIV Aids. These celebrities stopped their social life to support millions affect with the disease and raise money for the great cause.