Group items tagged

Because they do not have healthcare, illegal immigrants go to the emergency rooms and clinics when they get sick. Since it is an "emergency," the cost of treatment, seeing them, x-rays, etc is at least 3 times more expensive than it would be to have the same things done in a doctor's office. Therefore, illegal immigrants are costing the government more money now than they would if we provided them with healthcare.

Latin America is notorious for some of the worst prisons in the world, and large levels of HIV/AIDS cases have resulted from drug use and sexual relationships inside these institutions. This article notes the poor quality healthcare available in prison, and the issue of HIV/AIDS elevated by prison inmate interaction (drug use, sex) and poor healthcare.

Chagas--a deadly disease caused by an inch-long insect found in Mexico and South America has begun to spread to the United States. This article examines a disease long common in Latin America, but virtually unknown in the United States. There is little awareness around the disease, possibly due to the disparities in healthcare between Latin America and the United States--and the lack of recognition/communication about diseases between the two bordering countries of Mexico and the United States (e.g. the H1N1 virus).

This article is from 2008, one year after Mexico City legalized abortions. It talks about the continuing difficulties for poor women to receive safe abortions, even though they had been legalized. Women complained about long lines at understaffed public clinics, hostile treatment from hospital workers who opposed abortion, and unfair bureaucratic hurdles which made it difficult or impossible for them to get the procedure done. At the time this article was written, the abortion law was being challenged in the Supreme Court by the conservative government.

This is article is especially relevant to the discussion we had in class earlier today about sex education in Latin America. At the beginning of August, Heath and Education ministers from different Latin American countries, joined together and discussed the notion of sexual education. They concluded that providing comprehensive sexual education courses throughout schools, will actually serve as prevention towards HIV/AIDS.

This website relates to our course in that it outlines and explains major issues in Latin America that the United States has taken an interest in and are helping financially. This particular page of usaid.gov discusses contraceptive security in relation to HIV/AIDS in different countries.

For all the students who are more or less unfamiliar with HIV/AIDS, this website will answer any questions you might have. There are personal accounts, many articles spanning a wide range of topics relating to HIV/AIDS, information on testing and medications, treatment and side effects, current events and more.

In the past, the United States has granted political asylum to gays and lesbians from Latin America who could prove that they faced discrimination and persecution in their own countries because of their sexual orientation. Many of the asylum seekers were Mexican men who were HIV positive and were able to get the medical treatment they needed in the US. However, now that Mexico has taken some steps towards being more accepting of homosexuality, political asylum for Mexicans is harder to get.