You will write one research paper for this course on a country (not the U.S.) in which AIDS had a serious impact. There are three data collection activities associated with this paper. One will be due in September, one in October, and one in November. The final paper that you write will be based on what you learned about your country.
The questions you might want to answer in your paper are:
How large was the AIDS epidemic in this country?
How many people were affected?
How did it effect the economy, the government, public health, etc.?
Who (populations) was most likely become infected with AIDS in this country?
What resources did the country have to help fight the epidemic originally?
What does the HIV/AIDS epidemic look like today?
Do they have the resources necessary to contain the HIV epidemic currently?
To make this more interesting, you have been assigned to a group with 4 others. You will upload your three data collection assignments to a group discussion board. Why? So that you can compare your country to the countries chosen by your group members if you want. I find that comparing countries is really interesting.
FYI, because of the comparison piece, you cannot choose the same country as someone else in your group. You will upload your country choice to a discussion board, and will negotiate with your group members if more than one of you has chosen the same country. If that doesn’t work, I will reorganize the groups.
A short list of countries known to have had AIDS epidemics (feel free to choose another country, but check to make sure you can find data.):
Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia, Uganda, South Africa, Germany, England, Canada, Israel, India, Pakistan
Data collection activity #1. There will be a sheet for you to fill out with three decades of data. This will provide you with specific AIDS and other health data. There are additional questions to help you evaluate what the data you collected mean.
Data collection activity #2. This is similar to the first data collection activity but focuses on population and economy data. There are additional questions to help you evaluate what the data you collected mean.
Data collection activity #3. Numbers don’t tell a very interesting story unless we have some context in which to place these numbers. You will find three articles (peer-reviewed journal articles or book chapters), and use them to add context to the data you collected earlier. by answering several questions.
Your final paper should be 5-8 pages, double spaced, 1 inch margins and 12 point font. Make sure to use proper in-text citations and a reference page. See the resources module for the ASA guide to citations and references.
Data collection 3:
Country I chose: Germany (same as activities 1 and 2.
What interesting contextual information did you learn about the AIDS epidemic at the beginning of the epidemic? Something that i found interesting was that a cohort study was done about the prevalence and correlation between smoking and HIV and it was found that there is a correlation. People who smoke have a higher risk of infection and smoking also accelerates the decreases in your CD4 cells. Which we all know plays a part in HIV. A low CD4 count means that HIV has already weakened your immune system. So, people living with HIV can live almost a half time longer if they do not smoke than the ones who do.
How has the country addressed or managed the AIDS epidemic throughout the time period 1980-2000 in terms of treatment and prevention? Has there been AIDS stigma in this country? Germany was ill prepared when the virus first arrived. As far as prevent around this time all laboratories were required to report positive HIV results anonymously and there was an highly effective antiretroviral treatment.
How has the AIDS epidemic affected the population/economy of your country in this period? After the spike in cases there was a moderate decline due to the treatment then another increase in cases due to therapy failure and then it has been stabilized.
What is the HIV/AIDS situation like now? Is treatment universal? Is it free or is it expensive? Right now Germany has a budget of 304 million dollars for aids. HIV treatment is expensive even with healthcare.
Provide your references here. Use ASA or APA reference style. ASA style guide is available in the resources section of the data collection sheets.
