Answer:
If there is one illness in the world that can be viewed as both a medical construct and a social construct, is HIV-AIDS. The disease, which is definitely caused by the HIV virus, causes a series of evident symptoms and situations that are medically proven, and are handled medically through pharmacological treatments, rehabilitation, resocialization, and psychological treatments.
In HIV-AIDS, the physical and physiological, as well as psychological, effects of the disease, like the symptoms, which are responses to the different stages of the virus invading and attacking the body, and the pharmacological and surgical treatments for the disease, are all medically constructed. Another thing that is medically constructed is the research on the virus and the spread of information on the disease, which has fed, negatively, or positively, the social view on it.
However, HIV-AIDS has a really huge chunck that is constructed socially. First, the belief on how it is transmitted, and the social implications for those who suffer from it. Second, the unfounded views on the risks regarding the disease, which leads to social isolation for the person involved and third, the misunderstanding on the correct pathophysiology, prevention, and management of the disease in the general population causes people to reject people with AIDS. Fortunately, the advances in pharmacological treatment, and the release of new information of how the virus works and is transmitted, as well as how it can be prevented, have allowed new life standards for people who suffer the disease.
