OK, one more time:
1. HIV does NOT cause AIDS.
2. AIDS is NOT a sexually-transmitted disease.
3. There is no pandemic. There is no epidemic. There is no heterosexual epidemic.
4. African AIDS is NOT AIDS. It is not caused by HIV. It is based on malnutrition, common bacterial, viral and fungal infections, and poor sanitation.
5. The HIV test is NOT a test for the presence of live virus (antigen). It is an antibody test showing prior exposure to a harmless retrovirus.
6. The only people who are at risk of acquired immune deficiency are homosexuals (for a variety of disease issues) and IV drug users. Period.
7. AZT is a DNA chain terminator and kills people, it doesn't cure them. Next?
23 comments
1. Thanks for that
2. I wonder why it seems so perfectly adapted to that vector then.
3. Tell that to the people dying of AIDS.
4. Not malnutrition, some seem OK there. Common infections - most don't kill or are asymptomatic - some immunosuppression is needed. Not poor sanitation - that's just a disease vector.
5. This 'harmless' retrovirus does seem to match the signs and symptoms very well, and it does mainly appear in AIDS patients. It also causes disease when injected into mice.
6. Why? Goddidit?
7. WTF is a 'DNA chain terminator'? Anyway many drugs are toxic, it's just the way they work, but they do more good than harm.
The article it is in response to is a Reuters article about how Blacks in the United States have more HIV infections proportionately than Whites. It's not explained in any way by the ranting about nutrition and sanitation in Africa, because it's talking about the United States. Which last I checked, was not in Africa.
What it is explained by is the fact that it's a sexually transmitted disease. Blood borne illness doesn't follow the explosive and random distribution of air borne and water borne illness. It travels from person to person in discrete points of sexual contact. This means that it tends to produce the same absolute number of new cases in a minority population that it has spread into as it does in a majority population it has spread into. 100 sick people will spread it to 100 more sick people in a fixed amount of time, irrespective of how many total people are in each population group.
So when a sexually transmitted disease gets into a small population like a village or a minority group, its penetrance percentage tends to get very high - same number of new cases out of a smaller total. So the fact that there are roughly as many new cases in Blacks as Whites, and roughly as many new cases in Homosexuals as Heterosexuals isn't really weird or anything.
The only thing that is upsetting about that particular report is that apparently Blacks and Whites in the United States have sex with each other as infrequently as Homosexuals and Heterosexuals: delineating Blacks as a distinct sexual population. That's jacked up. But once you allow for that, the fact that there are almost as many new cases in Blacks as Whites despite Blacks being outnumbers five to one is totally unsurprising epidemiology.
Which doesn't stop Freepers from ranting about how it's somehow Obama's Fault despite the fact that he has literally been president for less time than it takes for an HIV infection to become detectable. That's just how Free Republic responds to... things.
-Frank
"2. AIDS is NOT a sexually-transmitted disease
6. The only people who are at risk of acquired immune deficiency are homosexuals (for a variety of disease issues) and IV drug users. Period. "
These are the 'facts' that get thrown around FR. Some other idiot will use this idiot as a source, I fucking gurantee it.
1. Oh yes it does.
2. It most certainly is.
3. Go tell Africa they have no pandemic.
4. All conditions which existed
5. Wow, you said something that's true. Which is why a positive antibody test is followed with tests for viral proteins and/or RNA.
6. Some people are at more risk than others outside of the "usual suspects" and they should know...such as women, particularly black women.
7. AZT was never promoted as a cure. At the time of its introduction it was the only drug that did much of anything to slow the progression of HIV infection. Not ideal, but better than nothing.
I have a friend with AIDS that wants to fuck you in every hole you have.
Hey it's not sexually transmittable remember?
How irresponsible of your friend! The stupid might be contageous!
"Malnutrition" in Africa seems to be confined to certain countries (not the poorest), certain demographics, was not widespread before the 1980s and tends to spread along highways, especially among truck drivers and prostitutes.
It has led to a massive drop in life expectancy since the mid '80s, despite no corresponding drop in material welfare.
I'd suggest you go have unprotected sex with hiv-positive people to test your theory, but even you don't deserve that.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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