Effects of AIDS in Minority Populations

In this regard, Schuster (1988, p. 261) notes that:

Blacks and Hi crossics argon overrepresented among straightaway IV dose users with aid. Blacks account for 12 percent of the U.S. population and 51 percent of the heterosexual IV drug users with help. eon 6 percent of the population are Hispanic, they are 30 percent of the heterosexual IV drug users with acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

The plight of urban minorities with respect to the contraction of AIDS (and it is to be noted that mammoth numbers of minorities live in American cities) can be seen not only from the foregoing statistics but also from the results of ordered seroprevalence studies conducted in 52 large American cities in 26 states. The findings of these studies showed that the rates of in the raw admission seropositivity ranged from zero in Tampa to 29 percent in Baltimore up to around 60 percent in New York and New Jersey; nearly of these new admissions were members of minority groups such as Blacks and Hispanics (Shuster, 1988, pp. 261-266).

A second rule of contracting AIDS is sexual intercourse, and as noted by Allgeier and Allgeier (1985, p. 545):

. . . risk appears to be highest among those with the largest number of sexual partners as fountainhead as among those engaging in the most frequent unidentified sexual contacts, probably because the more partners one has, the greater the likeliness of encountering someone carrying a sexually transmitted disease.

Mason, J. O., Nobel, G. R., Lindsey, G. R., Kolbe, L. J., VanNess, P., Bowen, G. S., Drotman, D. P., & Rosenberg, M. L. (1988). Current CDC efforts to prevent and control human immunodeficiency computer virus infection and AIDS in the United States through information and public education. Public Health Reports, 103, 261-328.

Slaff, J. I., & Brubaker, J. K. (1985). The AIDS epidemic. New York: Warner.

perhaps most alarming is the fact that the picture shown so uttermost is incomplete. In this regard, the discussion has focused on the contraction of AIDS by people who are either IV drug users and/or prostitutes. However, these people tend to be involved in relationships with others, not all of whom are themselves either IV drug users or prostitutes.

This involvement can, and often does, lead to pregnancy. And, in this regard, it has been estimated that 65 percent of the babies born with AIDS in the United States are born to women involved with an IV drug user (Des Jarlais, Friedman, & Stoneburner, 1988, pp. 151-158).

Shuster, C. R. (1988). endovenous drug use and AIDS prevention. Public Health Reports, 103, 261-266.

e considers that IV drug use is very much affiliated with both urban minority groups and whoredom (Slaff & Brubaker, 1985, p. 115), it can be seen that these avenues of AIDS transmission are, in effect, open doors through which AIDS is attacking America's minority populations.

If IV drug use and prostitution were the only avenues by which AIDS was posing serious biologic threats to minority groups in the United States, matters would be bad enough. However, there are certain biological stresses upon the immune system that, era not avenues of direct transmission, weaken the body by make it either more susceptible to AIDS transmission, or - if AIDS has already been contracted - can shorten the life span by further debilitating the immune system. The two most major of these biological stressors are: (a) the contraction of sexu
Order your essay at Orderessay and get a 100% original and high-quality custom paper within the required time frame.