How does racism affect the spread of STIs? Racism may not be as much of an issue in the U.S. as in other countries, but in poorer countries like Africa it can be an issue. Here in America in general, most people are offered equal opportunities regardless of one's race. When it comes to treatment of disease, if we were to ignore cost, most people would have the same opportunity to receive that treatment. However, in poor countries, such as Africa, not everyone has equal opportunity. Not everyone there is allowed access to treatments. Some people may not be allowed treatments just because of what race they are. If they aren't allowed access to those treatments, then the spread of disease is going to increase.
I think that living in the U.S., we take advantage of the fact that we do have access to such things as proper health care and we don't realize that other countries don't have such access. I think that also, in living in the U.S., when you hear of someone getting an STI, you automatically think they are going to get treatment right away. But in poorer countries many of the people there might not think that way. Because treatment and proper health care isn't as accessible there, it would be normal to think that they were just going to die without getting treatment. To them that would be the norm.
It's also different in the U.S. because people may not be getting these disease for the same reasons. They may all be mostly transferred by sexual intercourse, but here we have more access to contraceptives, and we also have other activities that people are doing besides having sex. In poorer countries, they do not have as much assess to contraceptives, and they don't have much else to do but have sex. This makes it more possible to spread diseases and STIs, therefore increases the spread of disease.
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Racism in health care, today, has more to do with location. Those in the U.S. have better access to treatments and contraceptives than those in poorer countries, such as those in Africa and Southeast Asia. I do agree that the way we view STI's in the U.S. is different and that we may take advantage of how easily treatment can be obtained.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you. I do feel like the spread of STIs and STDs has a huge connection with both location and classism. After all if there is no access to health care or if you can't afford health care the chance of diagnosing the disease and treating it is slim. However, I do feel like there still is a divide caused by racism that influences STI and STD transmission in the US. There is still a huge mistrust of our government due human experiments and treatment of certain races we have committed both today and in the past. Now if any government funded or supported research/advertising comes out to help stop the spread of disease there is going to be some skeptisism. We begin to see doubt that unprotected sex can cause harm and more and more people continue to have risky sex thus spreading the disease.
ReplyDeleteJust so I am clear I am not blaming ethnic minorities on the spread of disease because whites are just as much to blame. More I am emphasizing on the fact that there is a greater mistrust in ethnic minorities of the government because of how our government has acted in the past.
First, I believe that people in poorer countries have just about as much to do as we do in America. They too have TV, movies, and internet.
ReplyDeleteI will agree though that there is less accessibility to contraceptives, family planning options and disease treatment as those of us in the United States, but is this a race issue or a government issue?
I do not agree with you that racism is not a big issure here in America, it certainly is not as big here compared to other countries but there is still a huge amount of misstrust between public health and minority groups espessially the African American community. However I do agree with you on the poverty point because we can even see it here in the US. People who are uneducated about STDs and protection are much more likely to get and disease or virus though sexual acts. Some don't even care to get tested and if they do feel no need or simply cannot afford treatment. HIV for instance, the treatment is very expensive and most people who have it can't afford the medication to keep it in check and most insurance companies will try and find a loop-hole so they don't have to pay for it.
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