Introduction
In Chapter Five of our class text reading, we have looked at the issue of health among the indigenous people of the world. For example, we have learnt about some of major illnesses that plague the indigenous people along with health trends.
This prompted me to look farther into this issue and when I visited one of the local websites known as indiacountrytodaymedianetwork.com, which is actually a website that tackles matters related to the Indian group of indigenous people, popularly known as Native Americans, there was one particulate article that caught my eye. The article read “Rise in HIV Cases on Navajo Nation Spur Fears of an Epidemic”.
The article was talking about how the deadly Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) had recently become very prevalent amongst one of the largest indigenous community in the United States and that is the Navajo people.
According to the article that was actually written on 20th March 2013, the spread of this disease could lead a huge epidemic if prevention and education outreach efforts were not increased and made more effective. The article further stated that over the last decade, cases of new HIV infections had risen by about 20%.
The article quoted one doctor from New Mexico who exemplified the deep fear that most of the community members have due to the observed increase in the spread of this deadly disease. The doctor is actually is quoted as saying “I am scared to death”.
Although early detection of the disease has significantly increased from the time the disease first hit the area, the article states that stigma is still major issue. Most of the indigenous people who have contracted the disease fear rejection from family members and friends and therefore keep their condition as a secret. This has therefore been one of the reasons why the rate of infection has continued to rise steadily. Doctors previously thought that the disease was being contracted from out the reservation but it has recently emerged that members of the Navajo community are actually spreading amongst themselves. According to the article, this is indeed a very worrying trend.
As mentioned earlier, this article touches on one indigenous community in the United States and that is the Navajo tribe. This tribe is actually the largest indigenous tribe in America that is federally recognized. The tribe has an enrollment of about 300,000 members. Most of the members reside in specially established government reservation, popularly known as the “Navajo Nation” that occupies part of Arizona and New Mexico. Most of the tribe people speak the Navajo language although there are some who are capable of speaking in English.
The tribe can be used to representative of our readings in class to study about the various health trends of the indigenous people. In our class readings, we have leant that indigenous people are actually very susceptible to contracting illnesses such as HIV because of their poor economic and social situations that include aspects like unemployment, poverty and vulnerability to displacement and violence. The Navajo Nation is a true testament to this as most of its tribe members are in poor economic states making them more susceptible to HIV infections. As also seen in our class readings, efforts to address HIV prevalence in among the indigenous people are usually very minimal and non effective.
Works Cited
"Rise in HIV Cases on Navajo Nation Spur Fears of an Epidemic - ICTMN.com." Indian Country Today Media Network.com. N.p., 20 May 2013. Web. 26 May 2013.
