FREELANCE INQUIRY - HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC

ERIC ZARECKI

TASK 1: INTRO

This freelance inquiry project is about the ongoing global AIDS epidemic. I chose to do this inquiry on this topic because HIV/AIDS continues to be public health problem and is a major global issue affecting millions of people all around the world. HIV/AIDS has claimed the lives of 32 million people. Key populations and vulnerable people to HIV/AIDS are men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, people in prisons and other closed settings, sex workers and their clients and transgender people. Today, HIV/AIDS is a world wide disease and has mostly had dramatic impacts on developing countries, where treatments and medicines aren't available. I choose to research this topic because I believe it is a relevant issue today and because it has and still does affect communities I associate myself with.

HIV/AIDS effects the social pillar of sustainability and the economic pillar of sustainability. Having a high rate of HIV and AIDS can have serious social and economic challenges for communities in developing countries. People affected by HIV and AIDS may be unable to do their daily work, including growing food to meet their nutritional needs or earning income to support their families. The gay community in the USA suffered from the AIDS outbreak in 1981. Homosexual men faced even more hatred and discrimination than they already had due to the negative stigma around HIV, AIDS and gay men. Discrimination and prejudice costed many lives in the LGBT community because of those misconceptions of HIV and hatred towards the LGBT community.