Question

At the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, U.S. public health officials were shocked by the emergence of this new, deadly threat. The illness was found in gay men, a population that already faced discrimination in employment, housing, military service, marriage, health protections, adoption, public accommodation, and so on (Harper & Schneider, 2003).  Local, state, and federal officials had to figure out a public health strategy with people from the gay community and their allies in medical and political organizations. They believed that only by working together could they prevent animosities and opposition. For public health efforts to be effective, professionals in the field needed access to communities that previously had been marginalized by government agencies, like the gay community, injecting drug users, and people of color. As a result, some of the usual practices of public health that had been used in the past were rejected in favor of an exceptionalist approach to responding to the AIDS epidemic.   Due to the stigma associated with the disease and the near-hysteria that it generated, public health officials believed that it required a response above and beyond ‘normal’ health interventions. Efforts were made to protect the rights of those infected, to allow for more confidentiality in testing and treatment, as well as in partner notification, and to raise money for research and services when many governmental agencies sometimes ignored the new epidemic (Smith & Whiteside, 2010). It was important at the beginning of the epidemic to ensure that testing for HIV was voluntary, and with informed consent, that the identity of people diagnosed with HIV or AIDS remain confidential or anonymous, and that their partners weren’t required to be notified (although this changed significantly by 1988). The standard public health approach to infectious diseases came out of the early 20th century. The most extreme of these strategies are no longer practiced, but for vulnerable populations, the fear of what used to happen still resonates. Decades ago, some policies required compulsory testing, reporting to public health authorities the names of people who had been diagnosed with a “dangerous disease,” requiring treatment of those afflicted, and in some zealous cases, quarantining people who had the disease.

questions

1. Describe a report on HIV/AIDS policy in the United states at the federal,state and local level.

2. Describe how HIV/AIDS policy has changed, but it should be about existing policies at all levels of government.

Answer 1

1. The disease AIDS first appeared in the early 1980s,and rapidly become an epidemic among homosexual men.Intravenus drug users who shared needles, blood transfusion patients,and women with infected sexual partners were also at risk of contracting AIDS.

Activists, particularly in the community,responded by creating care and education centres and by calling for increased government funding to help in the crisis.Though the US government at first did little to respond to the crisis,it eventually million of dollars to research,care,and public education.

HIV continue to have a disproportionate impact on certain populations, particularly racialand ethinic minorities and bisexuals men and other men who have sex with men.

HIV testing is important for both treatment and prevention efforts.Yet ,15%of those infected with HIV are unaware they are affected.

Governments are every level - federal, tribal,state,and local play important roles in protecting,preserving,and promoting the public health and safety.In the United states,the government's responsibility for the health of its citizens stems ,in part ,from the nature of democracy itself.

States and their local subdivision retain the primary responsibility for health under the U.S constipation.To fulfill this responsibility, state and local public health authorities engage in a variety of activities,including monitoring the burden of injury and disease in the population through survillance system;Identifying individual and group that have condition of public health important with testing,reporting,and partner notification; providing a broad array of prevention services such as counselling and education;and helping assure access to high quality healthcare services for poor and vulnerable populations.

2. The HIV epidemic in the United States is no longer viewed as a new crisis,as it increasingly becomes a chronic conditions.The condition requires long term and expensive medical management and supports service, heavily reliant on prescription drugs.A disease that originally was perceived to affect only .. man and injection drug user have been found in the all sectors of society and throughout the world.In responding to the domestic HIV epidemic in 2003,the central challenges facing policy makers are how to provided adequate resources to fight HIV/AIDS and how to adapt public policies as program as the demographic profile of the HIV epidemic in the U.S changes.