AN 421 Assignment – Sexual Health: HIV/AIDS

Sexual health is arguably one of the significant and challenging aspects of public health.
While issues such as smoking, obesity and alcohol intake are powerful challenges in their
own way, their spread is limited by the uptake of behaviours that will lead to health
conditions that will arise from them. Whereas it can be argued that while smoking and the
diseases related to it are on the wane due to a reduction in taking up the habit, the
overwhelming majority of the population are, have been, or will become sexually active
at some point in their lives. As a result, a greater proportion of the population will become
susceptible to a multitude of infections, conditions and the long-term repercussions of
those over the course of their lives.

This essay will attempt to address this issue with a particular focus on HIV/AIDS. This
could reasonably be regarded as one of the most significant health scares of the late 20th
century and was also one substantially prone to mythologising and misunderstanding. It
will attempt to address factors affecting the spread of HIV/AIDS and what measures are
in place to limit the spread of the disease.