AIDS Progress Report 3

Keri Marshall’s AIDS Campaign Summary

I am currently working with Brett and Ivan on organizing the whole campaign. We are making sure we got everything we need and things ready for presentation. I have provided six resources with vital information, personal stories, etc. I have contributed with the brainstorming in this campaign process and participate in the group meetings. I have been coming up with ideas for presentation and have made a layout of an ideal on how and what to present. I hope to bring not only information about AIDS to the class with my group’s campaign but also more of a visual and personal affect. I will be meeting with my group to work on this campaign’s progress more.

Ivan Escamilla Findings Summary

            Ryan White was a thirteen year old child when came into contact with an infected needle used to treat his Hemophilia. A resident of Kokomo, Indiana, he was bullied and discriminated among peers and teachers. He was forced to take school at his home through a computer, but it came out fuzzy and hard to hear. Rumors were started about him in his town of Kokomo, and a mother was so bent on getting him expelled that he and his family decided to change towns. Ironically, after already having received nationwide attention, he was received with open arms in his new town. He met many celebrities and received a vast amount of support nationwide. Unfortunately, his battle against AIDS ended abruptly at the age of 18. His activism against unjust and misinformed discrimination paved the way for new policy, the Ryan White Act, which is currently the largest federally funded program that contributes to people living with AIDS/HIV. This fund is given to special treatment institutes where AIDS and HIV are treated. This program, unlike Medicare and Medicaid, is a “last resort” program, where those uninsured or under-insured victims of AIDS with low incomes may derive benefit from. It provides care to at least 500,000 people, and provided funds to 2,567 organizations back in 2004, where it has only increased until present. President Obama upheld the bill, hoping to give aid and relief to the now 1.1 million people in the U.S. living with AIDS, with 56,000 new infections occurring every year.

            International acclaim towards AIDS is highly subjective to culture. Different cultures give way to different approaches to sexual behavior, and thus AIDS, as exemplified through the people of Swaziland, which 25% of its population is infected. Condom use is also affected by culture, and also has resource restraints; condom availability is limited in an environment where traditional and political health leaders clash. Unfortunately, women consent, or their inability to say no to unprotected sex, is also founded in a culture where male dominance is deemed the norm. However, this does not mean males are unwilling to strive for better health for their families, as exemplified by Kenyans, who embrace the highly controversial act of circumcision. Circumcision has proven effects that reduce the contractibility of AIDS, but are seen by human rights groups as a mutilation of the body that is imposed on powerless ethnic groups. This is not entirely the case as Kenyan males subjected themselves with complete consent. Through small encouragement, a society can be saved from an alarming AIDS epidemic. Ugandans’ transmission of HIV changed drastically after only they were merely asked to change their sexual behavior. Though culture affects AIDS and HIV viewpoints, small changes can have an everlasting difference.

Brett Dworski’s Summary

In 1981, the virus known as AIDS (Autoimmune Deficiency Syndrome) was discovered in the United States. People did not know what it was or how to contract it, but they knew right off the bat that it was deadly. It had been around the world for quite a while by this time, beginning in what most people believe to be non – human primates in countries of West – Central Africa. In the U.S., initial cases were found in drug users (sharing needles) and homosexual men. The first sign of the virus in these people was a skin disease called Kaposi’s sarcoma. After research by scientists all over the country, they discovered that it was a virus that is an exchange of bodily fluids that causes the Helper T Cells in the immune system to die. Thus, in July of 1982, the name AIDS was given.

            When people think of the Olympic sport of diving, it’s very likely that the first person they think of is Greg Louganis. Back in 1984 and 1988, Louganis won five gold medals for the United States in diving. Nowadays, he is also known for something else; he is a homosexual with AIDS. Louganis came out to the world sharing his virus in 1995, when he wrote his best – selling novel, ‘Breaking the Surface’. He revealed within his novel that he had contracted AIDS from unprotected sexual activity with an abusive partner. A large controversy at the time was of the ’88 Olympics, when Louganis hit his head on the diving board. At this time, he knew he had AIDS, but he had not shared it with the world. After he shared his virus with society, there was huge talk all over the country, and even the world, of what “could” have happened (even though AIDS cannot be transferred through a swimming pool…). As of today, Greg Louganis is an avid speaker and activist for HIV and AIDS. According to him, “Education and prevention are the keys”