Drug Treatments for HIV AIDS

The prevalence of HIV cases in the U.S. might be attributed to increased complacency due to more advanced drug treatment options. However, it is difficult to not understand this complacency, as there are such high-profile cases of people infected with HIV many years ago who still today go on to lead highly-productive lives as though nothing were wrong. Case in point is Magic Johnson, former NBA superstar player, who was diagnosed with HIV more than 20 years ago. Today he is still alive, still in the spotlight, and still working as the managing director of the NBA team the Los Angeles Lakers. His success and apparent health have surely impacted the way HIV and AIDS are perceived in the U.S., especially as so many people in the past were dying from the disease—people like Arthur Ashe, celebrity tennis player who died from HIV contracted from a blood transfusion. Ashe’s story certainly made people in the U.S. more fearful about contracting AIDS, but the success story of people like Magic Johnson has had the opposite effect, with many believing now that AIDS is not as devastating as it used to be thanks to modern medicine.
Health care professionals can help to change perceptions and increase awareness of the realities of the disease by conducting health education and spreading literature around among groups that can facilitate the process (Nyembezi, Reddy, Ruiter, van den Borne, Sifunda & Funani, 2016). Such groups would be schools, where young persons can be taught about the dangers of HIV and AIDS; churches, where whole groups of people can be taught about what happens when HIV is contracted; workplaces, where literature can be disseminated in pamphlets; television, where infomercials and programs can be published and viewed; and the Internet or even a social media campaign, which can help spread the word about a specific issue that doctors would like to help gain traction with the public. Social media is a particularly effective method of getting information out to the public, especially if a campaign goes viral, meaning it is seen by millions of people quite quickly over a short span of time (Tsimonis & Dimitriadis, 2014). That would be a good way for information about HIV and the realities of AIDS to be spread among the public.
Strategies to education HIV positive patients on medication adherence, as well as safe practices to reduce the risk of infecting others would be to hold seminars, invite HIV patients to education classes and training so that they can learn to live a relatively normal life while also being mindful of what practices can spread the infection, such as sexual activity, drug use (sharing needles), and so on. The important part of such strategies would be to keep the group positive about their disease and the treatment options available while also paying attention to the seriousness of the disease and the severity of the issues that it causes.
Strategies to educate about HIV, to help patients with HIV or AIDS cope with their situation, and to help mitigate the risk of spreading HIV and AIDS would depend upon a suitable outreach campaign, like the Healthy People 2020 campaign, which identifies clear goals and helps health care providers identify ways to achieve those goals on a broad scale in their own communities. The goal of educating about HIV would depend upon a joint effort among health care professionals, each working in his or her own community to make an impact by addressing the specified issues with patients on a deliberate and case by case basis so that information is spread evenly and consistently over time.
References
Nyembezi, A., Reddy, P., Ruiter, R. A., van den Borne, B., Sifunda, S., & Funani, I.
(2016). The application of intervention mapping in developing STI/HIV health education program for traditionally circumcised men in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. European Health Psychologist, 18(1), 22-29.
Tsimonis, G., & Dimitriadis, S. (2014). Brand strategies in social media. Marketing
Intelligence & Planning, 32(3), 328-344.