¶ … healthcare advocacy campaign for individuals living with HIV. The Health Issue

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a virus that attacks and damages the human body's immune system. The immune system exists for one key purpose to fight off foreign bodies and diseases or infections that get into the body. This means that if someone contracts HIV, then he or she becomes vulnerable to various kinds of dangerous infections and diseases, which may cause death. As the virus continues to weaken the immune system, the system may weaken to the level that it cannot fight off infections or diseases anymore. At such a stage, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus may result in a more life-threatening disease referred to as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). However, not every person who has HIV contracts AIDS. Research has found that more and more elderly individuals have HIV / AIDS. This is largely due to enhanced treatments and clinical interventions that are helping HIV infected individuals to live longer. In the United States about 20% of people living with the virus are over the age of 55. Many of these individuals were found to be HIV positive when they were a lot younger. Still, thousands of old people are getting infected with the virus every year (HIV, AIDS, and Older People -- National Institute on Aging, n.d). More and more blacks and Hispanics are also getting infected with HIV. In fact, more than 50% of the population of individuals living with HIV or AIDS comprise of either Hispanics or African-American. The number of women getting infected with the disease is also steadily increasing. Substance abusers are also at high risk of contracting the virus, especially in cases where they share needles.

Two Campaigns

The first campaign dubbed Let's Stop HIV Together shows that the Human Immunodeficiency...

Persons featured in this campaign, include Regan Hoffman (magazine editor) and Jamar Rogers (a contestant on "the voice") who use their popularity to raise awareness in the public on the fight against HIV (Let's Stop HIV Together, 2012). It has been more than thirty years since the first case of HIV / AIDS was reported in the U.S. and the disease is still a crisis here. About fifty thousand Americans contract the disease each year. In fact, it is now estimated that over a million Americans live with HIV / AIDS. However, about 20% of these infected individuals don't know their status. It is important for every member of the public to learn the basics about the virus and the disease and the basic ways to protect oneself against it. It is also important to talk about what one has learnt about the disease with friends and acquaintances so as to raise awareness levels in the society. The program has a special page to help with this -- it is referred to as the HIV basics page and can be shared on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook (Let's Stop HIV Together, 2012).
The second campaign is a harm reduction campaign that was started in Indonesia. The campaign started after a team of Indonesian nonprofit organizations and government officials toured Australia on a fact finding mission. During the study tour, the participants opted to start the Indonesian Harm Reduction Network and a Harm Reduction Steering Committee for Indonesia. The former was chaired by a non-governmental organization in Bali, Indonesia and the latter largely comprised of government officials. As of the end of 2002, quite a number of other advocacy networks and groups had already been formed in the country to help in the fight against HIV / AIDS. Members of the government-led harm reduction committee met…