HW 30

              We live in the technological era, and technology is only going to become more prevalent. Many view technology to be a good thing, that it's advancing the world and our understanding of everything. For my project, I decided to focus on the role of technology in medicine. New technology has helped millions of people who suffer from a serious ailment. I used three sources to make up my research. Theses sources are; internet research, real life interactions with AIDS patients, and the use of a text provided in class.
              

              Technology has helped to increase life expectancy and has helped decrease the threat of death in cancer, heart disease, and stroke patients. All of those three are main causes of death in rich countries, such as the US. Coronary Heart Disease is the main killer in high-income countries, and "increased use of new medical technology and a spike in the use of prescription drugs has occurred alongside a continual increase in life expectancy and decrease in death rates for cancer, heart disease, and stroke." We have seen many improvents in the quality of healtcare and life throughout the advancement of medical technologies.
With diseases like, the one we focused on, AIDS, technology plays a huge role in the advancement of medicine. New drugs that are released further the fight against monsterous diseases such as HIV/AIDS. "Similarly, the introduction of low-cost antiretroviral drugs has allowed people already infected to lead longer, healthier and happy lives."
              This brings up the next part of the research, the real life incounters with people. My peers and I visited VillageCare, a clinic in Chelsea that is seemingly a clinic for general purposes, but whose patients seemed to all be infected with the disease. We spoke to one man who was from Miami who said that when he found out about his disease he was devistated and was told he only had 6 months to live. In those six months doctors release a new experimental cocktail of drugs that was extremely succesful. This was twenty years ago. This man lives his life in search of new technologies that can not only further his lifespan but also make it more comfortable. Another man we spoke with treated it like a death sentence at first but eventually came to be able to live with the disease, without modern technologies he wouldnt have had the time to learn to cope with his lifestyle. He was given new life because of modern technology and now he says he has learned how to live life to the fullest. A third person that we spoke to was not a patient but worked with the clinic and helped them with new patients and such. He had bad things to say about our healthcare system, but he had great things to say about the new technologies and how they helped these people so much with their ailments.
              The text we reviewed in class was from the World Health Organization, it showed us the facts and figures about the leading causes of death in countries ranging from low to high income. In low income countries, AIDS is a leading killer but is not in high income countries such as America. This could be because of the technological opportunities that people in America have. Seeing that the US is a rich country we have more opportunities and more access to technology. No one can disagree that AIDS is an epidemic, but maybe the reason that it is more prevalent in poorer nations is because of the lack of technology available in those nations. In rich countries the number one cause of death causes 1.33 million, in poor countries the leading cause of death causes 2.94 million. This is a huge difference. The number one cause of death in poor countries is Lower Respiratory Infection, a serious ailment that affects many across the globe, but can still be cured with access to technology.

Where would we be without technology?




aidsportal.org/
www.who.int/
abcnews.com
cnn.com
wikipedia.org