Comments on Hideyo's Week 3 Links

I really like what you did in your latest post. You have shown how far-reaching the effects of HIV/AIDS are in the world. More importantly, you showed how though the disease does the same thing in each person's body, the way different cultures respond to the disease differs greatly. You have displayed an awareness that this disease is not a matter of people simply becoming terminally ill, but that it also attacks societies at their most important levels. I was shocked to read that only 11% of people with AIDS receive the medications they need in sub-Saharan Africa.

When we look at the sex trade issues in Asia for example, how do you think redemption can be brought to that region? What practices need transformation?

As I looked at our posts this week, I noticed an interesting trend. In stories that discuss the disease in developing nations, they use the term AIDS almost exclusively. In stories that discuss the disease in developed nations, such as the US, they use the term HIV more than AIDS. I assume that this is because people infected with HIV in developed nations have greater access to medications and care and thus their disease is less likely to progress to become full-blown AIDS. Wikipedia offers a helpful definition of AIDS: a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the depletion of the immune system caused by infection with HIV.