The United States and Canada have both been confronted by the HIV/AIDS epidemics. The following article reviews different academic literature in public health to establish the mortality and morbidity impact of HIV on social, economic, and political influences on public health in the United States and Canada. Despite the increased number of infected people annually, the increased quality in health care and social and economic influence.
The introduction of antiretroviral therapy has majorly increased people’s survival among HIV positive adults in both the United States and Canada. However, the gains in the life expectancy for these two regions have not been characterized well. For example, A 21-year-old who is positive in the U.S and Canada is expected to live up to their 70s; this translates to almost the same life expectancy of the average population. Therefore the ART is responsible for increasing the life expectancy of HIV positive individuals, and it also reduces infections. However, the differences in races, sexes, transmission within a group, and the CD4 count remains constant.
HIV has a severe impact on economic development, the increase in mortality and morbidity reduces the standard of living directly, and it has consequences that impact the different areas of the economy. Increased mortality and morbidity adversely affect employees’ performance because of their low productivity and absenteeism in the workplace. Families and individuals are faced with the risk both directly and directly. Directly is through the risk of getting infected and indirectly due to the formal and informal social insurance are eroded. Organizations are currently being faced with reduced productivity rates and increased cost of the medical and death-associated benefits. From a macroeconomic perspective, economic growth reduces as the population growth is slow. The national savings are reduced due to the rising costs and the declining economic prospects negatively affecting the investment.
However, the combination of the ART (antiretroviral therapy) there has been tremendous improvements in the survival of the positive people since this regime has become very effective, accessible, and simply tolerable. The health gains associated with this combination have a substantial importance in both the personal and societal levels. Therefore in countries such as the United States and Canada where being infected affected people’s performance, this has changed as people currently can continue with their loves normally thanks to the ARTs. This means that with the increased survival rates, the population growth is high. However, with the recent focus on the socioeconomic inequalities, the country had reaped societal benefits. The efforts to reduce the gap in the population’s socioeconomic status in the United States have helped people improve their quality of life even with the high rates of infections.
In the general individuals, in both the United States and Canada, as of 2009, the life expectancy of a 20-year-old person was between 59-57 for males and 64-61.7 for the female population. The ART has resulted to a considerable increase in the survival rate of the persons that are positive all over the world, however, in the united states and Canada, this is not well recorded as there is no specific study which dictates if the increase of the life expectancy in the united states or Canada is similar or different from the general population. Even if it’s similar across different sexes or races.
In the United States alone, the total number of people with HIV is almost 1.1 million. Approximately 1 in 7 people know their HIV status; in the United States and Canada, the population of the people affected is smaller than the general population. However, the number of HIV positive people is heavily concentrated in specific affected populations. About 66% of the newly infected persons in 2017 were mainly among gay men and among men who have sexual interactions with other men. Among them, the Africa Americans were the most affected, closely affected by the Hispanic men. Among the heterosexual individuals, African American women, young adults, and transgender women in all ethnicities were also affected.
The social and economic status includes income, educational attainments, social class, and financial security. These factors can include the quality of life characteristics and also the opportunities and privileges afforded by different people in society. HIV is embedded in these socioeconomic inequity factors, both locally and internationally. Poverty specifically has been associated with the prevalence of HIV; in areas where there are high rates of poverty HIV positive people are more concentrated in these areas. People are more affected in areas where people have low socioeconomic status and impoverished neighborhoods. According to research, a person’s socioeconomic status affects their rates of contracting HIV. The SES is the main factor in establishing the quality of life for people affected by the virus.
This is because, in most cases, socioeconomic factors affect the general human functioning of a person both physically and mentally. Therefore low SES is translated to lower educational achievement, poverty, and poor health, which ultimately affects society. This is because there is inequality in health quality and distribution, resource distribution, and the quality of life increasing in the United States and Canada. Inadequate socioeconomic resources are associated with involving in risky behaviors, which can result in people contracting the virus. Behaviors such as substance use and engaging in sexual behaviors without condoms are risky behaviors that can increase the chances of people contracting HIV.
Although the United States gives the most funds in response to HIV globally, they continue to have many annual infections as of 2017. The people who are HIV positive experience social challenges, which include stigma within their community and discrimination. In a population where HIV is highly related to stigma, this creates a barrier for people to get tested as they are afraid of being side-lined in the community. Such challenges are majorly hindering the access of people to HIV prevention and testing and treatment services, which have affected the increase in the infections.
The rates of HIV are high in the southern parts of the country, contributing to about 45% of the people living with HIV, which accounts for about half of the annual new cases even though the southern states account for just 37% of the total population. Different social, policy and structural factors have driven the poor quality of health and the status of the southern dwellers. They are less likely to have insurance. As a result, in 2010, Obama developed a national HIV strategy which was structured in four main aims which include reducing the HIV infections, increase the access of quality health care while improving the health outcome for people who are affected with the virus, minimizing the health associated disparities or inequalities and also attaining a coordinated local response to the epidemic. There have also been policy reforms which have ensured that Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Such laws and policies have significantly affected HIV prevention and care; this is because the elected leaders basically make them; thus, voting rights impact HIV outcomes.
Minorities are the most affected in the United States. African Americans are overrepresented in the high number of infected individuals, as most of them are associated with low socioeconomic status. Hence the conclusion that this epidemic’s impact is mostly felt in the weakest in the society that is affects the disadvantaged persons in the United States and Canada’s society.