Trends of HIV and AIDS in the USA Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Trends of HIV and AIDS in the USA - Assignment Example Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is like any other virus that attacks human beings. The difference is that this virus cannot be eradicated by the immune system. The virus is responsible for weakening the key parts of the human immune system (CD4 cells or T-cells), such that it becomes ineffective in fighting diseases. With time, it causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Symptom (AIDS), at the final stage of HIV infection. With proper treatment, however, a person can keep his/her HIV level low reducing the chances of developing AIDS (Aids.gov, 2014). The condition can be transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse with an infected person, childbirth (from infected mother) and blood transfusion (exchange of blood from infected individuals). In 1981, United States of America became the first country to recognize HIV and AIDS as a new disease among gay men. However, the origins of HIV and AIDS are suspected to be in Africa (Avert, 2014). Since it was first discovered to the public conscience more than three decades ago to date, the disease has gained a notorious reputation as a feared and controversial disease in modern medicine which leads to it being widely politicized and mystified (Avert, 2014). During the early 1980s, disjointed reports from many states, especially California and New York, claimed that small groups of men, most notably elderly men of Jewish/Mediterranean descent and young African Americans, were contracting a rare and new type of cancer and/or pneumonia. A common factor in the groups of individuals affected by this disease was that they were all homosexuals. In June 1981, the condition was first documented by the United States Center for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC) and was named as Pneumocystis Pneumonia. By early 1982, the condition had acquired various names including ‘gay-related immune deficiency’, ‘gay-cancer’ and ‘gay compromise syndrome’ with approximately five new cases being reported per week. The acronym AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) was suggested in July 1982 at a meeting in Washington with the CDC first using the term in September 1982. Â  

Care of Sick Children Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Care of Sick Children - Essay Example This entails that the care continues even if the child does not receive direct treatment for the diagnosed disease. Health professionals are entitled to evaluate and alleviate a number of issues relating to the child. These issues include physical and psychological well-being of the concerned child. Moreover, medical professionals are also entitled to consider the social distress of the affected child. In order to have an effective palliative care, it requires application of a multidisciplinary approach. This means that in palliative care, the family of the child is supposed to make their contribution and be ready to assist with available resources. However, palliative care also takes place even if there are limited resources. Another significant issue is that palliative care can be provided in various areas. These areas include various tertiary care facilities and public health centers. Palliative care can also be provided in the affected children’s home. There is close conne ction of palliative care with a child’s death. Death tends to be the only issue that hampers application of and access of palliative care to children. However, even with the occurrence of the death, palliative care is entitled to take place as one of the components of treatments. Through palliative care, children and their families get the opportunity of having a new hope for the life of the affected. Palliative care also helps in preparing the families for the worst that might occur any time, which in this case is death. Challenges that nurses encounter when implementing palliative care to children The child’s awareness and understanding of their dying One of the main challenges that tend to affect nurses when implementing palliative care to children is stress (McCloskey et al., 233). Many people often consider the death of a child as unnatural event. This mentality contributes in making many of the nurses to be psychologically affected knowing that the affected child may succumb to death any time. Stress also comes because of the demanding responsibilities associated with caring for children with terminal illnesses (O'Leary 435). Mostly, these responsibilities contribute in making anticipatory anxiety to nurses when addressing the needs of these children. Newly employed nurses into this field are the one who seem to be mostly affected with the issue of stress. This is because they are in most cases practically unfamiliar with the psychological situation that these children and their parents go through. The other main challenge associated with implementing palliative care to children is uncertainty of prognosis. Prognostication refers or in most cases is acknowledged as the employment of inaccurate medical science in adult palliative care (O'Leary 435). However, this issue is mostly more complicated and challenging in children compared to adults. Most of the children affected with this condition are those with non-malignant disease (Junger et al ., 6). There are cases where some children with terminal illnesses have lived beyond the estimation of prognosis. In such cases, the affected children have apparently lived in various terminal phases (O'Leary 435). This has resulted to health professionals or nurses revisiting the various addressed issues now and then. Some of these issues include artificial hydration and nutrition. They also tend to check on appropriateness of further investigations of which is a challenge