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To: sandydipper
Less than two months ago, Clinton was in China, where new HIV infections have been growing annually by 30% due in large measure to the trade in tainted blood. Speaking in Tsinghua University, Clinton spoke of scandal, not regarding the worldwide spread of HIV by the trade in blood plasma, but about the cost of anti-AIDS drugs: "This medicine issue is an international scandal," Clinton said, with not even a trace of irony. "Money shouldn't determine who lives and dies from AIDS." (Source: "Clinton, in China: World must collaborate to fight diseases like SARS, AIDS," Stephanie Hoo, Associated Press, November 10, 2003.)
72 posted on 01/06/2004 5:43:49 PM PST by Wallaby
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To: BigM; T'wit; Budge; Askel5; Prince Charles; Fred Mertz; thinden; liliana; Great Dane; ...
Just found that one of my contentions in "Is the Blood Trade Responsible for the Origins of the AIDS Epidemic?" (April 5, 1999, Free Republic) -- that the spread of AIDS in Africa had more to do with the needle than unsafe sex -- has received recent support from medical researchers.


HIV RISK FACTORS: Unsafe healthcare bigger culprit than unsafe sex in African AIDS
AIDS Weekly
EXPANDED REPORTING; Pg. 17
March 10, 2003


Since the 1980s most experts have assumed that heterosexual sex transmitted 90% of HIV in Africa. But now an international team of HIV specialists presents groundbreaking evidence to challenge this consensus, with "profound implications" for public health in Africa.

In a series of articles in the March 2003 International Journal of STD and AIDS, Dr. David Gisselquist, John Potterat and colleagues argue that the spread of HIV infections in Africa is closely linked to medical care. In their unique study of existing data from across the subcontinent they estimated that only about a third of HIV infections are sexually transmitted. Their evidence suggests that "health care exposures caused more HIV than sexual transmission", with contaminated medical injections being the biggest risk.

*HIV and STDs: According to the authors' data, African HIV did not follow the pattern of sexually transmitted disease (STD). In Zimbabwe in the 1990s HIV increased by 12% a year, while overall STDs declined by 25% and condom use actually increased among high-risk groups.

*Infection rate: HIV spread very fast in many countries in Africa. For the increase to have been all via heterosexual sex, the study claims, it would have to be as easy to get HIV from sex as from a blood transfusion. In fact, HIV is much more difficult than most STDs to transmit via penile-vaginal sex.

*Risky sex? Several general behavior surveys suggest that sexual activity in Africa is not much different from that in North America and Europe. In fact, places with the highest level of risky sexual behavior, such as Yaounde in Cameroon, have low and stable rates of HIV infection. "Information ... from the general population shows most HIV in sexually less active adults."

*Children and injections: Many studies report young children infected with HIV with mothers who are not infected. One study in Kinshasa kept track of the injections given to infants under 2. In one study, nearly 40% of HIV+ infants had mothers who tested negative. These children averaged 44 injections in their lifetimes compared with only 23 for uninfected children.


A growing body of evidence points to unsafe injections and other medical exposures to contaminated blood" as an explanation for the majority of the spread of the epidemic.
*Good access to medical care: Countries like Zimbabwe, with the best access to medical care, have the highest rates of HIV transmission. "High rates of HIV in South Africa have paralleled aggressive efforts to deliver health care to rural populations".

*Riskier to be rich: Most STDs are associated with being poor and uneducated. HIV in Africa is associated with urban living, having a good education, and having a higher income. In one hospital in 1984, the rate of HIV in the senior administrators was 9.2%, compared with the average employee rate of 6.4%.

The authors suggested several reasons why evidence has been ignored until now, including the West's preconceptions about African sexuality, the fear that people might lose trust in health care, and simple disbelief that medical practices could be so unsafe.

They concluded, "A growing body of evidence points to unsafe injections and other medical exposures to contaminated blood" as an explanation for the majority of the spread of the epidemic. "This finding has major ramifications for current and future HIV control programs in Africa".

This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports.


73 posted on 01/06/2004 5:58:45 PM PST by Wallaby
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To: Wallaby
>> "Money shouldn't determine who lives and dies from AIDS."

Bud Henderson ADMITTED -- on camera -- to making $500,000 a year from selling tainted blood. Correcting for inflation, that would be more like $2 million a year, or a million-five.

We don't know how much the Clintons got, but from Arkansas understandings, and the amount of arranging and lobbying he did to protect the operation -- the Clintons got a bundle. A third? That could have been $5-6 million a year.

Even supposing that's much too high, they got a lot of money for spreading death by AIDS and Hepatitis C. His statement above shows him once again to be utterly without conscience or core.

74 posted on 01/06/2004 6:13:28 PM PST by T'wit
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To: Wallaby
If you recall in June(?) 1999 Michael Galster's prosthetics Little Rock office was fire bombed and burned to the dirt. "Investigators" have never resolved this apparent arson.

Galster was the whistleblower on the Arkansas prisoner blood supply. US hospitals refused to buy blood from the company marketing the prisoner blood. But Canada and other foreign nationals bought the tainted blood.

Clinton's FDA knew the Arkansas blood was HB positive after tests revealed 6 out of 10 were "tainted". Bill Clinton is culpable in the Canadian deaths.

91 posted on 01/07/2004 8:33:04 AM PST by sandydipper (Never quit - never surrender!)
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