Social Topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Social Topic - Essay Example Of all of the diseases which are passed along socially, HIV and AIDS are the most feared and misunderstood. The purpose of this paper is to examine and research the social disease known as HIV and AIDS. When talking about any disease, even sexually transmitted diseases, it is important to know that diseases are not prejudice. Yes, there is genetically inherited diseases which take place with respect to an individual’s genotype and there are social diseases that result from certain cases of being exposed or from people’s behavior, like unsafe sex. Diseases however are a medical problem and are without human prejudice. Diseases, whether bacterial in nature or viral in nature, are opportunists and will take over and infect any available living thing that meets their needs. In other words, a viral infection does not simply take over in those with a type of orientation or religion. It happens when host is available. When the first reports of HIV and AIDS came into view in the 1980’s, a sexual revolution had ended and then it came a deadly STD where before that, only menacing STD’s were around. Because of the medical scare attached to HIV and AIDS, people responded as they have for millennia with a need to find blame. The 1980’s also brought in the beginning of a socially acceptable alternative to the strait life style. For many, this meant an easy scapegoat. The many gay men just gaining a sense of social acceptance were quickly labeled as carriers and/or spreaders of HIV and AIDS. The truth of the matter however, is that HIV is a virus which is spread through certain ways. This in actuality, has nothing to do with whether a person is gay or straight but rather whether the person has had unprotected sex or has been infected with HIV positive blood. To better understand how HIV is spread, it is important to mention that HIV is categorized as a ‘retro virus’. A r etro virus is a virus that can be contracted but can then lay inactive for a