Geo 261

Brandy Sanders
October 28,2015
Globalization is an immense enlargement of world communication and world market.
Globalization can be characterized by the political, economic, social, and cultural aspects of the world
(Shannon 8/31/15). All over the world people travel every day to different countries and different cities
because of their work, tourism, etc. Beyond tourism, migration also contributes to the spread of disease,
which can be exacerbated when immigrants and refugees live in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions
(Global Trends in Emerging Infectious Diseases). As you may know as a result of globalization and
moving from place to place we spread different kind of diseases that we just do not think about often .
Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) are a significant burden on global economies and public health.
Their emergence is thought to be driven largely by socio-economic, environmental and ecological factors
(Global Trends in Emerging Infectious Diseases). One disease that has affected the world as a whole is
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), which is a virus that causes AIDS by destroying large
numbers of cells that help the human body fight infections. David Heymann, Executive Director of
Communicable Diseases for the World Health Organization said Infectious diseases are undergoing a
global resurgence and threaten the health of everyone. They remain the world's greatest killer of children
and young adults, accounting for more than 13 million deaths a year and half of all deaths in developing
countries (Lederburg, 2001). The United States and Africa was the top two countries that had the most
infected people. Globalization played a role in these two countries because HIV had an effect on their
social, political, and economic aspects.
First HIV, had a major impact on Africa. It mostly started in the 1980s when men would leave
their families and their homes for employment and would travel South to work in the gold mines of
Africa. Outside of each mine there was a little settlement with a store and women for hire. Sex workers
did not know about HIV or condoms because they did not have the knowledge of knowing the spread of
this deadly disease. The workers of the mines would come back and spread HIV to their wives or lovers.

In 1990, when Southern Africas President Nelson Mandela was released from prison, people had
a sense of hope because they thought he would help find a cure and help lower the rates of infections.
People from outside countries would come into Africa to tell people to behave, (it was whites telling
blacks this). People of Africa thought that these people from outside countries thought they were having
sex irresponsibly when they had no knowledge of what was going on. Since men from the mines would
infect their wives or lovers, mostly women were infected, which led to their babies being infected with
the disease. Babies were filling the hospital up, because many mothers wanted to save their children but
the doctors could not do anything about it and they did not really care. Why should the doctors care when
the government does not? In 1994, Mandela became president and he barely mentioned AIDS. South
Africa did not have any way to change AIDs because they were such a poorly funded country, and they
had a president at this time that did not care.
On the other side of the world, the United States was also going through a dramatic depression
with AIDS. In the U.S, Bill Clinton ran for President, saying he would provide a new leadership on AIDS.
Most of us have preferred to believe AIDS is not our problem, that it only effects gay men and IV drug
users, but the truth is, it is everyones problem. AIDS in the United States was going tremendously. Over
200,000 Americans at this time had already died from this disease. A million and a half was infected.
When Clinton became president, he broke a campaign promise, he said he would like gays service
actively in the military but he turned his back and would not let gays service in the military. Many people
at this time was against Clinton. Citizens said it felt like a war was going on because nobody was
listening. In the late 1980s and early 90s New York was devastated by the HIV infection.
Dr. David Ho and many researchers at this time wondered why did HIV stay dormant for so many
years? They found out that the infection never did stay dormant because it was such a very dynamic
infection. This disease replicated by the millions every day, it mutated other cells in the body, so then the
infection became drug resistant. Dr. Ho needed to find someone that had just newly became infected with
HIV to see how to defeat this, and to find a cure. After months of trial test, the researchers and Dr. Ho
finally found a cure for AIDS and called the antiretroviral drug, Triple Cocktail, which would cost a

person an average of $16,000 a year. After a cure was found there was the thought of One World, One
Hope but this was not arcuate because many countries and individuals could not afford the drug.
People also had a controversy in the United States in the 90s because people were getting AIDs
from abusing drugs with needles. People wanted more needle exchange programs to prevent more
infections. But parts of the government did not want to supply for the programs because they said If
drugs are illegal in the U.S, we shouldnt be handing out utensils.
One thing that brought the U.S together as a whole, was the AIDs quilt, which was a memorial to
celebrate the lives of people who had died of AIDS and to bring awareness to how massive the pandemic
was.
In conclusion, in the age of globalization, HIV thrived throughout the world. AIDS decimated
whole nations, destroying the stability of the nations. The social, political, and economics views of
globalization impacted the diffusion and treatment of HIV/AIDS in different areas of Africa and in the
United States. In the United States people turned against President Clinton and the government at the time
of the pandemic, economically some people in the U.S could not afford the Triple Cocktail to cure HIV,
and socially the people of the U.S had to come together as a whole to become stronger during this horrific
time period. In Africa, people barely had the knowledge of HIV. The president of South Africa did not
mention much about trying to find a cure or prevention, and doctors in hospitals did not care about HIV
patients as much because the government did not care either. In an economical view, Africans did not
have the money to get antiretroviral drugs to cure HIV because they are such a poorly funded country.
Globalization can affect a country in many ways.

Work Cited:
Global Trends in Emerging Infectious diseases

Lederburg, J. (2001). Read "Emerging Infectious Diseases from the Global to the Local
Perspective: Workshop Summary" at NAP.edu. Retrieved October 28, 2015, from
http://www.nap.edu/read/10084/chapter/2#28
The Age of AIDS: Part Two. (2006, May 30). Retrieved October 28, 2015, from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/view/
Dr. Shannon. Globalization Lecture 1. August 31, 2015.