Essay Sample on Invisible Chronic Illnesses

Introduction

The manner in which humanity has evolved in meeting the challenge of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) can be said to be nothing short of remarkable. In the early 1980s, HIV was considered an Acute Fatal Disease, however, through evolution in medicine and by extension how society views the condition, HIV has moved from an Acute Fatal Disease to a chronic illness. An invisible chronic illness to be precise. Today, HIV is a manageable condition mainly due to the efforts made by healthcare providers, advocates, and biopharmaceutical researchers. However, irrespective of the strides made to combat the condition, there is still a steep challenge to be best with regard to stigma stemming from the disease. Stigma effectively hampers those living with HIV/AIDS to share their experience and even seek medical aid. The rise in the rate of HIV/AIDS infection is a subject that calls for an examination of the measures and the steps that the society has indulged upon to manage and minimize the mortality associated with the illness.

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Evolution of HIV

The U.S. alone has 50,000 new infections every year, according to the CDC statistics on HIV (2018). This may be worse in other areas of the world, especially in developing nations. Nigatu (2012) attributes this spread, especially in developing nations, to the 'silence' that HIV has been treated with. Silence in this case to mean the misconceptions tied to the condition, hence if an individual gets infected, they are most likely not to talk about it with family or caregivers. Below is a short history of how HIV came to the reality of humanity and further, the strides that have been made in combating the now invisible chronic illness.

1981-1986: The Epidemic Starts

In the early 1980s, mainly gay men were becoming ill and medics were puzzled as to what may be the cause. As the 'puzzle' unraveled in the medical theatre, it was soon realized that both infants and women companions to the gay men were also acquiring this infection. The symptoms were later collectively classified as AIDS, which was identified by medics to be caused by a virus, termed HIV. This initiated a research race in the medical industry to understand and cure the disease. These efforts bore little fruit and are said to have led to the promotion of the culture of fear, discrimination stemming from the disease and eventually, medical treatment suffered a blow (Nigatu, 2012). The infected found themselves detested by society and without a functional treatment. Death rates arising from HIV/AIDS soared in the world. Scientists, after realizing that HIV is the causative virus of AIDS, focused their efforts on the treatment of HIV.

1987-1994: Possibility of an Effective Treatment Arises

In 1987, scientists verified that nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) decelerated the evolution of HIV in advanced cases. Through further testing, scientists gathered that the drug also aided in managing symptoms for people and children in the early phases of the disease (Geter, 2018). In the midst of the meager medical triumphs, the mortality rates continued to rise. Geter (2018) adds that in 1994, HIV/AIDS was the lead killer of Americans between the ages of 25 and 44. By the end of the year (1994), a total of 270,000 Americans had died from the disease.

1995-Today: Transforming Treatment

Protease inhibitors turned the tide of the HIV/AIDS epidemic (Geter, 2018). This is because, as Geter et al., (2018) argue, the inhibitors were able to halt the progression of HIV through preventing infected cells from duplicating and spreading the virus through the body. This was later termed as Highly Active Antiretroviral therapy (HAART), which turned the tide for the treatment of the disease. Death rates began declining rapidly. Drug treatment became more efficient with combined treatment options. For the first time in over a decade, people infected with HIV began to imagine a bright future for themselves. The mortality rates began to plummet and biopharmaceutical scientists rapidly developed new and better medication to shore up the success of HAART. Treatments like CCR5 receptor antagonists, nucleotide analogs and fusion inhibitors, restricted the reproduction of HIV and barred it from entering cells altogether.

Today, HIV is considered a controllable condition. The greatest indicator of it being an invisible chronic condition is that in the period of its discovery, life expectancy was measured in months, but currently, an infected 20-year-old has a life expectancy of 70.

Living with HIV/AIDS

The interviewee for this paper is Dr. Young, who works at Rose Medical Center in Denver and is the Chief Investigator for the Centers for Disease Control's HIV Outpatient Study. His experience with HIV is wide, having conducted multiple research and written multiple papers on HIV. As per the doctor/researcher, people living with HIV find it immensely difficult to talk about their status, even with family members. The medical practitioner attributes this difficulty in disclosure to the stigma tied to the condition. Bernhard (2018) in agreement with the medic, states that stigma is the leading cause of HIV related deaths, not even HIV itself. From the time the disease was discovered, due to the rapid nature in which it progressed and led to death, it was considered a death sentence. This misconception has not changed, even with the advances in medicine and civic education on the disease (Bernhard, 2018).

Dr. Young responded that stigma has relegated HIV to a silent chronic killer. Especially in America and developed nations where HIV/AIDS is usually thought of as a third world problem and not a present concern. This misconception has led to the segregation of the already infected and in some case the affected as they are thought of as human beings of a lower social rating. Nigatu (2012) argues that it is not uncommon for the citizenship of developed nations to look down on developed nations, especially with regard to HIV/AIDS. This has further led to the same despise being experienced by infected people living in developed nations. Social rejection, as Dr. Young adds, is a common experience of many of his patients. Thus, the patients take special care to hide their HIV status from people in their lives. This is collectively called stigma and is the key challenge facing those living with this now invisible chronic illness.

HIV stigma refers to negative feelings, beliefs, and attitudes toward persons living with HIV (Land, 2018). It is a consequence of a disease that flourishes on social inequity and marginalization and in addition to making people living with HIV feel disgrace, it negatively impacts their health. Dr. Young adds that in his understanding, stigma mainly came about from the early days of the HIV epidemic when the condition was misconstrued and there was no effective remedy. And even now that there is an effective treatment, the social wrong that is stigma is still there.

To answer the question on whether HIV infected people share their invisible illness openly, Dr. Young says that it is highly circumstantial and in most cases very unlikely. In support of this answer, Elizabeth Taylor of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation adds that the stigma around HIV is just not vocalized as it was in the earlier periods of the epidemic's discovery. The founder adds that just because it is not vocalized does not mean it does not exist. The AIDS Foundation carried out online research on whether stigma exists or not revealed that 98% of the respondents affirmed that stigma still exists. The research had 57 respondents. This further compounded the truth of what uninfected people think of those living with HIV.

Living with Invisible Illnesses

Dr. Toni Bernhard (2018) in an article on the challenges of living with chronic illnesses and invisible pain says that those suffering from invisible chronic illnesses do not look much different from healthy individuals. This further compounds the 'invisibility' of their condition to the healthy population, as it is said, 'out of sight, out of mind'. Bernhard adds that this has continually desensitized people from empathizing with those suffering from different chronic illnesses as they simply do not believe the conditions exist and if at all they do, then they exist in faraway lands or are suffered by a different people.

These thoughts and feelings are continually shared both in face-to-face interactions and on social media. Hence anyone suffering from the chronic illness being spoken about feels they have let down their community by acquiring the disease. To further compound this, Land (2018) adds that society normally pity's people suffering from chronic illnesses. This makes them feel abnormal and that they have little to no chance at a normal life. Additionally, the psychologist adds that this feeling of pity and at times self-loathing is experienced across the board, from those suffering from cancer to HIV to sickle cell anemia. It simply makes an individual feel alienated and to a good amount, dead before they actually are. The views on silent chronic illnesses seem largely convergent, irrespective of the illness. The general view, at least from the patient side, seem largely convergent. Convergent at the point where one would rather not reveal they are suffering from a chronic illness, as they would risk being treated different (Bernhard, 2011).

Conclusion

Through the different sources reviewed in this paper, it is evident that the burden of making the invisible life of living with a chronic illness visible lies with the patient of the illness. Depending on the illness and circumstances, how this is achieved varies. It may be through educating the general population or even those closest to them on the illness or going public about it and saying how hard/easy it is to live with the condition. Irrespective, it is necessary, especially in this time and age of great medical discovery, that silent chronic illnesses be publicized more often and the public be sensitized, not only informed on how to handle those living with these conditions.

References

Emily, L. (2018). You told us: HIV stigma still exists. Beta Blog. San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Accessed on 20th February 2019 from https://betablog.org/you-told-us-hiv-stigma-still-exists/

Geter, A., Herron, A. R., & Sutton, M. Y. (2018). HIV-related stigma by healthcare providers in the United States: a systematic review. AIDS patient care and STDs, 32(10), 418-424. Accessed on 21st Feb 2019 from https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/apc.2018.0114

Nigatu, T. (2012). Integration of HIV and Non-communicable Diseases in Health Care Delivery in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Preventing Chronic Disease. Accessed on 21st Feb 2-19 from doi:10.5888/pcd9.110331, Price water Press, London.

Snippen, N. C., de Vries, H. J., van der Burg-Vermeulen, S. J., Hagedoorn, M., & Brouwer, S. (2018). 763 Influence of significant others' perceptions, beliefs, attitudes and behavior on work outcome of individuals with chronic diseases: a systematic review. Fervent Publishing, Georgia.Toni, B. (2011), The Challenges of Living with Invisible Pain or Illness; The chronically ill and those who care for them often live in an invisible world, accessed from; https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/turg-straw-gold/201109/the-challenges-living-invisible-pain-or-illness on 20th February 2019.

Young, B. (2006). The Body. The complete HIV/AIDS Resource. Remedy Health Media, LLC. Accessed on 21st Feb 2019 from http://www.thebody.com/content/a47316.html