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Understanding Human Rights and HIV AIDS

Monday, January 9th, 2012

HIV is a virus that persists in being spread across the globe. As it does, the connection between human rights and HIV AIDS becomes increasingly apparent and diverse. The history of this connection dates back to the 1980s when people with HIV or AIDS were subject to discrimination in terms of international travel restrictions, employment and housing barriers, medical care and insurance, or access to educational opportunities. This time period is essential when considering the connection between human rights and HIV AIDS because, by the end of the decade, a movement to enforce compassion and camaraderie with HIV-infected people began.

This concept has a lengthy history, but plenty of movements have taken place in just the last 60 years. The cornerstone of modern concept is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a document that instructs governments about what they are responsible to perform in order to uphold the rights of people everywhere. It was drafted in 1948 by the UN General Assembly. Other documents exist as well which state legally-binding obligations that governments must meet if they sign onto them. In the context of human rights and HIV AIDS, access to the highest standard of physical and mental health for citizens is outlined in almost all human rights documents.

Governments around the world are responsible for respecting, protecting, and fulfilling the rights of their citizens. This means that countries and states cannot violate rights directly, must prevent the violation of rights from a third party, and must take appropriate measures to ensure that all rights are fulfilled. Based on the fact that governments are obligated to protect public health, they can be understood to be responsible for creating and implementing programs to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS within the borders of the country or state. Human rights and HIV AIDS can be best addressed by governments if they consider three situations that affect a great number of the population-infected, affected, and vulnerable.

HIV-Aids – Latest Information

Monday, June 28th, 2010

The purpose of this write-up is to give up-to-date report on HIV/AIDS and of course HIV/AIDS LATEST report since it is very popular and known all over the world as one of the major cause of death all over the world and perhaps the greatest threat to mankind which has kept scientist at work for decades and still no proved scientific cure yet. But unfortunately, according to UK Health Protection Agency, it is estimated that up to a quarter of all people with HIV are unaware that they are infected.

If you have ever had sex with someone whose HIV status was not known from blood test, you might have contracted HIV without realizing it – people that look very healthy may have HIV without knowing it.

Though HIV and AIDS are used interchangeably, it will be nice to state the difference between the two. HIV- means, Human Immunodeficiency Virus while AIDS means, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. AIDS is as a result of continual attack on the body’s immune system by HIV.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a retrovirus and they enter the body through direct contact with blood or other body fluids and when it enters the body, it weakens the body immune system (it attacks or kills the T Lymphocytes and CD4 cells which provides body protection against different kinds of incoming infections) making it weak to fight against disease causing agents.

When the immune system becomes highly weak to fight back any infection in the body, that means that the patient can suffer great illness due to minor infection and thus may result to death (from AIDS related illnesses) – at this stage (according HIV/AIDS LATEST report), when the body immune system is very weak, the patient is said to be suffering from AIDS. So, AIDS is said to be an opportunistic infection (An opportunistic infection is an infection that would not normally affect an otherwise healthy person. Oftentimes, it’s these infections that are the cause of illness or death in HIV-positive individuals – not the virus itself). But according to HIV/AIDS Latest report from Centers for Disease Control and prevention, a CD4 cell count below 200 means that the person is having AIDS. When HIV enters the body, it infects T cells and takes over the activities of these white blood cells so that the virus can replicate. Eventually, HIV infection compromises the entire immune system and causes AIDS.