URL: http://www.publicagenda.org/pages/HIV-AIDS-May-2009
Thursday, October 7, 2010
AIDS still a problem
In 2005, HIV/AIDS was reported the sixth-leading cause of death in Americans age 25-44. There are currently over 56,000 new cases of HIV/AIDS each year with a total of 1.1 million currently. Even with these reports, Americans' perception of the problem has drastically decreased in the past few years. In 1995, 44% of Americans said that HIV/AIDS was the most urgent public health problem facing the United States. Today, that number has fallen to just 6%, this is most notably due to politicians turning their attention to the overseas situation. Public awareness has also dropped, in 2005 35% of Americans claimed they had heard "a lot" about the problem of AIDS. In 2006, that number dropped to just 14%. The Obama administration recently committed $45 million for a public awareness program "Act Against AIDS", a five year program intended to raise the public saliency of the problem. The public must be educated about AIDS, policy makers are faced to ask the public if it feels that AIDS is a serious issue?
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Hayden,
ReplyDeleteA couple weeks ago my Health Administration class had an assignment where we were given $10 million imaginary dollars, and were asked to place this money among six different health issues. About 80% of the class ranked AIDS as the top issue, and said they would use the money to raise awareness about AIDS and to search for a cure. It's great that Obama has started this program because, like the article said, a lot of people are unaware. I'm interested to see how this agenda is going to be different than past initiatives, and to see how this program makes a difference. It would be a shame to see $45 million go to waste.
Elise Leppert
Yes, definitely AIDS is one of the most significant problem in the world. More and more people getting AIDS by many ways. For example, in China the population of getting the AIDS is increasing crazy.The total number is around 12,000,000. The government or the whole society should take it very seriously. And found out the way to control the number going up. And the most important thing is people should realize how serious it is, and aviod the drugs. People need to work together let the world become more and more peace and bright.
ReplyDeleteIt's great that the Obama administration is concerned with public awareness of HIV/AIDS. If the public doesn't see it as a threat anymore, then less money will be allocated towards finding better treatments or a cure. Since it is a global pandemic, it is essential that researchers continue studying it.
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