Sierra Leonean woman and Italian woman's life expectancy when living with HIV

Lucia Idriss

01/10/17

Mrs. I

Statistics

There is no correlation between HIV and life expectancy in females within the countries of Sierra Leone and Italy.HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS ( HIV) "Unlike some other viruses, the human body can’t get rid of HIV completely. So once you have HIV, you have it for life. HIV attacks the body’s immune system, specifically the CD4 cells (T cells), which help the immune system fight off infections. If left untreated, HIV reduces the number of CD4 cells (T cells) in the body, making the person more likely to get infections or infection-related cancers. Over time, HIV can destroy so many of these cells that the body can’t fight off infections and disease. HIV is an easily contracted disease that can be transmitted through breast milk, sexual activities, and also blood.Countries such as Sierra Leone are underdeveloped and do not have access to all the resources needed to sustain incurable diseases such as HIV, whereas Italy has that kind of access because they are a more developed country.  I wanted to learn more about those whom have been infected and why they’ve been infected. To truly determine what the data points on the graph represent, from the least to the greatest. So now I will test whether your location and income affect the life expectancy in women with HIV.

When I first began I asked myself questions such as : How many of these women were sexually active before marriage and where these women sexually abused to contract HIV? So I took those questions to the web to find out that, yes sexual abuse was used as a form for some of these woman to contract HIV, especially in Sierra Leone during the war time. As I searched around even further I came an article ( lifeinitaly.com ) says “ In the past sex was viewed as a taboo subject. In Italy, like so many other European countries, this was perhaps mostly due to the powerful influence of the Catholic Church on Italian society. Sex was not a topic discussed by people in public, nor did it have a presence in the media.” and “ The average age for the first sexual experience is currently 17 in Italy. This is a difference of up to four years compared to the past, in particular the 30's-40's, when women generally had sex for the first time when they were, on average, 21-22 years old. Not only has the age for first experience changed but so has the context.” So could this also be a reason as to why HIV has such a high testing rate in Italy? Yes. And that evidence can be found on the gapminder graph that I have created.

The graph on gapminder tells a story of the women in Italy and Sierra Leone living with the HIV disease. In the graph you can clearly see that there is no positive nor negative correlation between the two countries. But you can also see that Italy has a larger bubble and also a longer life expectancy than women in Sierra Leone. The bubble represents the amount of women infected by the HIV disease, but how is it that they are living longer than the women who actually have  a lower HIV infection? Poverty, many women in Sierra Leone live in poverty, they are not expected to live as long because treatment in sometimes non affordable so they wind up passing because they can no longer take care of themselves. But as for the women in Italy they are more financially equipped so they can then actually take care of themselves to live much longer. The graph’s story has been told as to what the bubbles and correlations represent.

Now I also asked myself “ does living circumstances affect treatment availability? “ and my answer to that is yes. Some people who have been diagnosed with HIV cannot afford treatment because they are too poor, but based off of the graph that seems to have not affected the life expectancy for those women whom have been diagnosed. But in recent affairs I have noticed that the graph in 1990 Italy’s life expectancy increased, and there must have been a more affordable access to the treatment. This same increase also happened in Sierra leone in 2000 and remained at that same rate in 2006 going forward. So I believe the same affect that happened in Italy also Happened in Sierra Leone.  

In conclusion, from my research I can say that HIV does affect life expectancy in Females, and I can conclude that your financial statement also plays a part in whether or not you will receive treatment for the HIV disease. But I can still remain to say that there is no correlation on the graph determining life expectancy and HIV in Sierra Leone and Italy.