The Need: AIDS and Homelessnes
With indications that the prevalence of HIV among homeless persons may be as high as 20 percent, the greatest need for HIV or AIDS treatment after medication is stable housing.
The National Coalition for the Homeless has made a major policy recommendation that homeless persons with HIV/AIDS need safe, affordable housing and supportive, appropriate health care (NCH Fact Sheet #9, August 2007).
Staying healthy is a monumental challenge for any of the estimated 3.5 million homeless individuals in the United States. But a study has shown that homeless persons with HIV/AIDS are even more at risk with a far higher probability of also suffering from bacterial infections, tuberculosis, pneumonia, and hepatitis (John Song, "HIV/AIDS and Homelessness," 1999).
The poverty level that is the major cause of homelessness can also be a contributing factor in acquiring the HIV virus itself. Although most studies of economic implications of HIV/AIDS have concentrated on developing nations, the impact of poverty is universal: Protein-energy malnutrition, iron deficiency anemia, vitamin-A deficiency, all of these poverty-related conditions decrease resistance to disease in general and to HIV in particular (Barnett and Whiteside, "Poverty and HIV/AIDS").
Other common contributing factors are lack of education—-especially about safe sexual practices—-and substance abuse. Of persons in the United States living with AIDS, 59 percent of the men and 65 percent of the women were infected through sexual contact; 28 percent of men and 33 percent of women were injecting drug users (IDU’s), (United States Statistics Summary).
Facing new challenges
The public perception of HIV/AIDS is changing. Even though 17,000 Americans died of AIDS in 2005, the disease is more often thought of now as something “overseas” or “African.” AIDS is largely overlooked in the press and other mass media today because it never became the epidemic once feared.
The introduction of antiretroviral drugs in the mid-1990’s has made the condition no longer fatal. As an educated population became aware of risk factors, fears seemed to be calmed (HIV & AIDS in America).
But there is still a stigma attached to HIV/AIDS. Untreated, it remains a life-threatening disease that people are afraid of contracting. It is associated with behaviors that are stigmatized in many societies such as sex and injecting drugs. And many people believe HIV/AIDS is the result of a moral fault that should be punished (HIV/AIDS Stigma and Discrimination).
Although outlawed by federal legislation, discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS still exists.
Advances have been made in medication and treatment of HIV/AIDS. Even though the HIV “cocktails” were developed in the mid-1980’s, patients often had to take two or three dozen pills a day, every three or four hours around the clock. An event in 2006 was the development of the single, one-a-day pill, a major story in the New York Times. In 2007 the United States Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to two new drugs that offered hope to patients infected with virus strains resistant to almost all other drugs designed to fight AIDS (AIDS & HIV history: 2007). A significant advance was made in 2008 by researchers from Canada and the United States who discovered a gene, TRIM22, that blocks HIV to prevent the onset of AIDS (Barr, "Interferon Response").
But these facts remain: No vaccine has been developed to prevent transmission of HIV. There is no cure for AIDS. Persons now living with HIV/AIDS treatments must be supported in working toward careers and independent living.
With indications that the prevalence of HIV among homeless persons may be as high as 20 percent, the greatest need for HIV or AIDS treatment after medication is stable housing.
The National Coalition for the Homeless has made a major policy recommendation that homeless persons with HIV/AIDS need safe, affordable housing and supportive, appropriate health care (NCH Fact Sheet #9, August 2007).
Staying healthy is a monumental challenge for any of the estimated 3.5 million homeless individuals in the United States. But a study has shown that homeless persons with HIV/AIDS are even more at risk with a far higher probability of also suffering from bacterial infections, tuberculosis, pneumonia, and hepatitis (John Song, "HIV/AIDS and Homelessness," 1999).
The poverty level that is the major cause of homelessness can also be a contributing factor in acquiring the HIV virus itself. Although most studies of economic implications of HIV/AIDS have concentrated on developing nations, the impact of poverty is universal: Protein-energy malnutrition, iron deficiency anemia, vitamin-A deficiency, all of these poverty-related conditions decrease resistance to disease in general and to HIV in particular (Barnett and Whiteside, "Poverty and HIV/AIDS").
Other common contributing factors are lack of education—-especially about safe sexual practices—-and substance abuse. Of persons in the United States living with AIDS, 59 percent of the men and 65 percent of the women were infected through sexual contact; 28 percent of men and 33 percent of women were injecting drug users (IDU’s), (United States Statistics Summary).
Facing new challenges
The public perception of HIV/AIDS is changing. Even though 17,000 Americans died of AIDS in 2005, the disease is more often thought of now as something “overseas” or “African.” AIDS is largely overlooked in the press and other mass media today because it never became the epidemic once feared.
The introduction of antiretroviral drugs in the mid-1990’s has made the condition no longer fatal. As an educated population became aware of risk factors, fears seemed to be calmed (HIV & AIDS in America).
But there is still a stigma attached to HIV/AIDS. Untreated, it remains a life-threatening disease that people are afraid of contracting. It is associated with behaviors that are stigmatized in many societies such as sex and injecting drugs. And many people believe HIV/AIDS is the result of a moral fault that should be punished (HIV/AIDS Stigma and Discrimination).
Although outlawed by federal legislation, discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS still exists.
Advances have been made in medication and treatment of HIV/AIDS. Even though the HIV “cocktails” were developed in the mid-1980’s, patients often had to take two or three dozen pills a day, every three or four hours around the clock. An event in 2006 was the development of the single, one-a-day pill, a major story in the New York Times. In 2007 the United States Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to two new drugs that offered hope to patients infected with virus strains resistant to almost all other drugs designed to fight AIDS (AIDS & HIV history: 2007). A significant advance was made in 2008 by researchers from Canada and the United States who discovered a gene, TRIM22, that blocks HIV to prevent the onset of AIDS (Barr, "Interferon Response").
But these facts remain: No vaccine has been developed to prevent transmission of HIV. There is no cure for AIDS. Persons now living with HIV/AIDS treatments must be supported in working toward careers and independent living.