At the Mountain (ATM)

                              HIV AND AIDS AMONGST WOMEN IN SLUMS Slum;            An overcrowded urban street or district inhabited by very poor people. Living in low quality housing, infrastructure and  poor drainage systems etc. Kenya in particular has several slums e.g. kibera, korogocho, mathare just to name but afew.HIV\AIDS in slums is about 14% higher than the rest of Kenya. However, HIV and AIDS are very high in slums and mostly amongst women. It is impossible to know the HIV and AIDS prevalence rate among slum residents. This is because it is impossible to collect accurate data due to the fact that urbanization is taking place on a daily basis. Therefore, the population in slums is transient   and due to this reason HIV and AIDS is likely to fluctuate greatly. Women in slums are the most infected with HIV and AIDS this is due to several reasons namely: ...

DRUG ABUSE CONTRIBUTION TO HIV /AIDS SPREAD Drug abuse is the over or under use  of any substance that alternates the normal functioning of the body. Drug abuse has been a great contributor to the spread  of HIV/AIDS. Do drugs contribute to the Spread  of HIV and how? It  increases the likely hood  of users to engage in high-risk  sexual practice   with infected individuals. Drug abuse also interferes with  effectiveness  of HIV treatment. Addicts may engage in sexually risky behaviors to obtain drugs or money for drugs. Sharing of needles while doing  drugs also exposes users to  infection since no one really  bothers about  the status of the other drug user. Abuse of substance      increases cancer risk ( ie)  most HIV patients  are smokers hence increased  incidence of lung cancer shortening the lifespan of the patient . Research shows that drug abuse causes greater  injury to...

According to studies anyone can get HIV but you can take steps to protect yourself from getting infected with HIV.people can prevent spread of HIV in the community by getting tested and knowing their partners status,awareness should also be created to educate people on importantces of  proper  use of condoms and warn  people on re-use  of condoms from anal to viginal or using it more than ones. As people infected with STD are at higher risk of getting infected with HIV they should be tested and treated for stds.incase of pregnancy the mother should start medical care right away to prevent transmitting to the child during birth,Labour or even breastfeeding.people should be educated on less practice of high risk sex      Communities should encourage  male circumcision practices as circumcised male are at low risk of getting  infected with HIV. People should be open minded  and honest with their partners by telling them if they are infe...

Effects of HIV/AIDS to the society Introduction Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Two strains of the virus, HIV-1 and HIV-2, have been described. AIDS is a human disease in which there is gradual failure of the body’s defense (immune) system thereby leading to severe and fatal opportunistic infections and cancers. Infection with HIV occurs through coming in contact with infected body fluids such as blood, breast milk, and sexual fluids such as pre-ejaculate, semen and vaginal fluids. The key modes of transmission are unsafe sex with infected person-both heterosexual and homosexual, contaminated items such as needles and razors, breastfeeding, and infected mothers infecting the newborn during birth. Impact to society Infection with HIV usually has a huge physical, mental, social and economic impact on infected individuals, their families as well as the community in which they live.  Impact of HIV on Indivi...

THE BIOLOGY OF HIV TRANSMISSION One way HIV is transmitted is through Sex. The sexual transmission of HIV is a complex process that begins with a person being exposed to the virus and ends with infection . for an HIV exposure to pose risk of infection, specific body fluids from an HIV positive person need to come into contact with specific body parts of an HIV-NEGATIVE person. This happens most often through anal or viginal sex. If a person is HIV positive,only some of their bodily fluids  contain enough virus to transmit HIV sexually. This includes:                * semens, pre-cum,viginal fluid and rectal fluid                 Blood also contains enough virus to transmit                  Hiv,but not commonly involved in the sexual                 transmission of HIV. Transmission may occur if sufficient qua...

Traditionally, there was a traditional hearer. But, can traditional healers cure HIV? A clear distinction needs to be made between the words “cure” and “treat” .There is considerable confusion about this due  to the fact that some methods and herbs appear to “treat” the symptoms of HIV but not “cure “ the infection itself. The medicine which traditional healers were used was able to strengthen immunities and treat severe symptom of HIV/AIDS, although most of people died of ignorance and believes. So in traditional, there was no cure of HIV/AIDS but instead there was a treatment of HIV/AIDS symptoms. Enormous advances have been made due to high technology and also after the herbal medicine failed to cure. Scientists have come up with several vaccines to tests whether they can cure the virus, like ARVs, ART, and HAART By which instead of curing has transformed HIV into a chronic illness. These vaccines can help only a young HIV positive who begins treatment shortly after diagnosis t...

Myth is a widely held but false idea or belief,on the other hand witchcraft is the practice of and belief in magical skills and abilities exercised by solitary practitioners. It is a central to many African conceptions of illness, disease causation and etiology. It varies culturally depending with the society. In many countries especially African countries people belief that HIV/AIDS is a spell that is cursed on a person through witchcraft.since an HIV/AIDS infected person may show signs like diarrhea and loss of weight which are classic symptoms of poisoning through witchcraft, suspicion of is retained as potential explanation for the ultimate reason behind the infection. The infected person would then consulte a witchdoctor for medication thus leading to more deaths since they can not find proper medication to prolong their lives.Men and women who believe HIV/AIDS is spread through witchcraft are less likely to use protection (condoms) during sexual intercourse.   ...

Origin of HIV and AIDS When and where the HIV virus first emerged is probably going to remain a mystery for many years to come while several theories have been put forward .there is no condusive single agreement on the origin of HIV and AIDS... Some of the mostly acknowledged theories about the origin of HIV and AIDS are the following 1mysterious theory 2religious theory 3colonialism theory 4contaminated needle theory Colonialism theory These theory was first proposed in the year 2000 by Jim Moore an american specialist in primate behaviours who published his findings in journal AIDS research and human retrovious During the late 19th and 20th centuries much of Africa was ruled by colonial forces In area French equatorial Africa and belgin Congo colonial rule was particularly harsh and many Africans were forced into the labour camps where sanitation was pure ,food was scare and physical demand were extreme These factor alone would have been sufficient to create poor health ...

To be able to deal with HIV/AIDS in our community, it is important to look at our own attitude towards people living with the disease.Anyone can get HIV/AIDS , maybe it doesn't matter how a person get infected because some are born with it and others got it through rape, what matters is that we support them. A big percentage of people in the community have negative attitudes towards HIV/AIDS and people living with it.Most of them especially the youth do not go for HIV testing not because they do not want to know their status but because of that fear that if found positive they will be exposed.Seeing of how the infected people have been stigmatized in the society ,no one can bear being separated from the community by being open about his/her status. The community has ignored its own problems mainly because they fear that HIV/AIDS infected people brings a negative impact or change in the community . Others believe that one can get infected by associating with the infected people,...

HIV Stands for human immunodeficiency virus. It was discovered in 1980s as a terminal illness  but later in the 90s,it became quite torelable due to treatment. It targets the white blood cells that fight diseases in the body, specifically the CD4 cells,also known as T cells.        HIV has various stages. The initial state has Flu like symptoms, while the second stage may last for approximately 10years.On the third stage, the immune system can no longer fight diseases hence leading to an advanced stage which is AIDS.   However, HIV has no cure but can be managed though antiretrovital therapy. This entails a combination of medicines that prevent the growth of the virus.      AIDS is an advanced stage in people infected with HIV. A healthy person has 500- 1000CD4 cells. If these cells fall below 200, an individual is diagnosed with AIDS. This indicates the immune system has been severely compromised, making as individual vulnerable to ...