These days, what can 50 cents get you? Unfortunately not much. I just went to get something from the vending machine and everything was $1.25 or more. The funny thing about that is, according to UNAIDS, most of the more than 1000 people that get infected with HIV in Asia EACH DAY could have been averted with less than half of the US dollar per person.
In the conservative Asian and Vietnamese culture, a lot of things are "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Even as things progress before my eyes, I still notice many things that people refuse to discuss. I think that HIV and AIDS are definitely on that list. Growing up I heard adults talking about AIDS as a joke. Sadly enough, it was a joke that people said plagued the promiscuous girls. I once heard a man say, "Don't you touch her, she's got AIDS bugs jumping all over her." Ridiculous to us, but it's really sad...ignorant... and risky to keep thinking that way.
Some Facts at a Glance... (From UNAIDS Viet Nam)
Did you know?...
*Prevalence in the general population is estimated at 0.53%.
*According to the 2005 Estimation and Projection Report, there were an estimated 293,000 people living with HIV in 2007.
*Of all reported HIV cases, 78.9% are in the age group 20–39, with males accounting for 85.2% of total reported HIV cases.
*People living with HIV are getting younger and heterosexual transmission is becoming more significant.
*As of 31 August 2007 were 132,628 cases of HIV and 26,828 cases of AIDS. There have been a total of 15,007 deaths due to AIDS in Viet Nam.
In a country as small and as impoverished as Vietnam, 15,007 deaths is huge. I can't help but wonder if many of those people did not received all the possible treatments they could have due to not only the level of poverty many of the high risk populations possess but also because of the stigma of discussing anything sex-related, or anything involving HIV/AIDS.
I was so proud of myself after last week's quizzes... and especially on the questions that involved the Myths regarding HIV... I continue to be confident that we are learning more than any of us expected or had set out to.
http://www.unaids.org.vn/sitee/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=413&Itemid=1
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I think that those kinds of jokes are misleading too. You do hear people make fun of people who are promiscuous by saying they have AIDS and things like that. But in reality, anyone can have AIDS. Any jokes about AIDS are usually misleading. There's 1 that says GAY stands for Got AIDS Yet? I think these kinds of jokes are distasteful, misleading, and stereotypical.
ReplyDeleteYour post opened my eyes to the fact that even small countries can be hugely affected by the HIV virus. Although this is a small , less populated country, they have a very large percentage who are HIV positive, and like you said, it continues to spread to those younger and younger. There was no mention as to what, if anything, the government of Vietnam is doing to stop the spread or does the government even care. This was a good post as I would not have thought to research HIV in Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that HIV was so widespread over in Vietnam as well. It's amazing how this virus is spreading across the world and changing people's lives all over.
ReplyDeleteI too learned a lot from all off the myths that were stated in our assignment last week and I am embarrassed to say, but many of those I thought were true until studying and researching for this class.
To be honest with you, I believe this class should be one of our required classes, not just an elective. There is so much valuable information from this course, I think it's important that this new gets spread around, that way we can try to decress the amount of occurances.
These statistics show just how much of a worldwide pandemic that this really is becoming...I wonder if any of the wars that took place contributed to the spread of HIV across the world. Some of the jokes can be quite tasteless, I never even heard of any of those. I would definetely take the opportunity to express my extreme distaste for one's comment such as that...some people just need to hear how foolish they sound and with a situation as such it is important that they do.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you in that certain cultures to this day turn their backs to HIV/AIDS. They decide not to discuss it or talk about it to their family or community. Things of the sexual nature in some cultures are just not talked about. The only reason I can think of is that maybe some people feel uncomfortable talking about HIV/AIDS to their family and community. Also, I feel as if certain cultures refuse to do anything about HIV/AIDS because they still believe that people who get the virus are taking part in risky behaviors. They avoid the fact that other people get HIV/AIDS for other causes as well. Education is the key.
ReplyDeleteI don't like those kind of jokes towards those who are infected with the disease because it is a very serious issue. We've learned in class that HIV/AIDS can be spread through a blood transfusion or just by having someone else's infected blood in your own system so this could happen to many people who are not promiscuous or homosexuals. Those type of people take their health for granted and are fortunate to be healthy for the most part. We cannot be insensitive to people with this disease because when millions and millions are dying from this disease this is not an issue to be taken as a joke.
ReplyDeleteIts crazy to think that people would still have ignorant mindsets to speak of people with the HIV/AIDS virus. It just goes to show that we need to work that much harder to continue to educate others on what we have learned in this class.
ReplyDeleteIt is going to be difficult to change the minds within different cultures. That is where you all come in. You can pass on what you have learned and hope to change just one person's mindset. Just remember it is like a pebble in a pond. The circle will expand with each new pebble. You just have to jump in.
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