Community Health an Objective of Hiv Prevention Program

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Community Health The objective of HIV prevention programs is to reduce the number of new cases to as close to zero as possible. Everyone has part to play in any prevention program. The key to prevention is educating the community. All prevention efforts are based on the belief that individuals can be educated in a way that will lead to changes in behavior, which will help bring an end to the spread of any infectious disease. As a part of Forsyth County’s overall public health mission, CDC, which stands for Center for Disease Control provides leadership in helping control the HIV epidemic by working with community Public Health Departments. While there have been great strides in the prevention of HIV transmission and care of HIV infection since this topic was first recognized in 1981, many people still have questions about HIV and AIDS (Gaur, Dominguez, Kalish, & Rivera-Hernandez, 2009). The information provided in this paper will answer some of those questions. HIV is a very dangerous disease that sees no race, no color, no gender, no economic background and not even a specific age group. It can affect anyone, at any time if they put themselves in a situation where they could be at risk. HIV stands for human immunodeficiency syndrome. A person that is affected with the HIV virus may look perfectly healthy and show no signs what so ever of this illness. HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus. It is the virus that can lead to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. CDC estimates that about 56,000 people in the United States contracted HIV in 2006 (CDC.gov). There are two types of HIV, HIV-1 and HIV-2. In the United States, unless otherwise noted, the term “HIV” primarily refers to HIV-1 (Marks, Crepaz, Senterfitt, & Janssen, 2005). Both types of HIV damage a person’s body by destroying specific blood cells, called CD4+ T cells, which are

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