STRAIGHT AIDS MYTH SHATTERED

New York Post - Page Six ^ | 3/19/04 | Richard Johnson with Paula Froelich & Chris Wilson

[kattracks]

THE public health experts - and their amen corner in the media - owe Helen Gurley Brown an apology. The legendary Cosmopolitan editor was vilified in 1993 when she published a piece called "The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS." But she was right.

[Interesting Times]

Uh, no, they actually owe an apology to Michael Fumento, who researched and wrote the book by that name, and presumably the article as well.

Helen Gurley Brown didn't have anything to do with it.

[Mr. Mojo]

"What do you call a man who got HIV from his girlfriend? . . . A liar."

Magic Johnson, a liar? Say it isn't so!

[spetznaz]

Then how would the AIDS pandemics of sub-Saharan Africa, India, south-east Asia and the potential Chinese epidemic stemming from? The vast majority of those infections cannot be blamed on homosexuality and intravenous drug use.

[Jeff Chandler]

I always thought that Magic embraced Isaiah Thomas on the court just a little too long.

[norton]

"The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS..."

What the hell, it scared a lot of us into monogamy.

[sharktrager]

One cause is high prevalence of anal sex, which was taught as a method of birth control.

[I still care]

I have heard several different theories. One I found interesting had to do with "unusual" sexual preferences, such as "dry" sex. I don't know if that was so or not. I heard lots of other things too, I guess you would have to research it.

But it does seem strange, doesn't it, that it is so pandemic among both sexes in parts of Africa, and yet here it doesn't seem to affect heterosexuals who are not drug users that much. It seems to me that it would be far more widespread here, if there were not a piece of the puzzle missing.

[Jeff Gordon]

The vast majority of those infections cannot be blamed on homosexuality and intravenous drug use.

Why do you assume this?

[Jeff Chandler]

Then how would the AIDS pandemics of sub-Saharan Africa, India, south-east Asia and the potential Chinese epidemic stemming from? The vast majority of those infections cannot be blamed on homosexuality and intravenous drug use.

The men catch it from drug use, penetration by other men, and visiting prostitutes while suffering from open sores on their genitals. Their wives catch it from anal penetration, and the practice of "dry" sex, facilitated by the use of detergents and other harsh, mucous membrane-injuring chemicals.

The infants catch it from superstitious child-rape.

[Mr. Mojo]

Yep, it was right before the '89 finals at center court, if I remember correctly. .....And that "embrace" was with their lips.

[ECM]

To add to what others have already noted:

Very poor healthcare (re-used needles, poor blood screening, etc. in all of the places you mentioned); female genital mutilation (at least in Africa); homosexual sex (did you not realize that China has a massive male to female ratio problem due to their cultural dismissal vis-a-vis the perceived value of females?) and those are just the tip of the iceberg...

Also, don't think for one second that a lot of the 'AIDS/HIV' cases in Africa are actually TB and malaria outbreaks but, due to poor/no testing, are assumed to be the former (plus, politically and financially, it's much better to tally those illnesses up under the AIDS/HIV column).

[Jeff Chandler]

And that "embrace" was with their lips.

I forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me, chump.

[cyborg]

I would be suspicious of AIDS myths articles in a trash sex how-to rag like Cosmo.

[Qwinn]

In addition to the above reasons, there's one that most folks aren't aware of - in African culture, anal sex has no taboo associated with it. At all. It's a regular substitute for sex, as oral sex is here, a poor-man's birth control.

There's also some odd local customs at work. In some villages, the culture dictates that a recently widowed woman has to have sex with a local man who is designated for the position, in order to drive out evil spirits. It's the same man for all the widows... and in the story that I found out about this, the man in question also seemed to be alcoholic and possibly a drug user.

Qwinn

[Jeff Chandler]

In some villages, the culture dictates that a recently widowed woman has to have sex with a local man who is designated for the position, in order to drive out evil spirits.

It takes a village...

[squidly]

Magic Johnson, a liar? Say it isn't so!

I'll use Magic to make my point. AIDS isn't a gay disease, it's an anal sex disease. Anal sex with an infected woman is just as risky as anal sex with an infected man. Magic could have been doing it 'Kobe style' with some gal.

The odds of contracting HIV/AIDS from 'normal' sex are indeed very, very low.

[Neuromancer]

HEALTH-BRAZIL: AIDS Spreading Six Times Faster Among Teenage Girls

Inter Press Service - March 10, 2004

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 10 (IPS) - HIV/AIDS is spreading at an alarming rate among teenage girls in Brazil, with six 13 to 19-year-old girls infected for every boy in that age group.

That is the only category in which the growth of the epidemic shows such "a huge gender difference," with the rate dropping among teenage boys and rising swiftly among girls, Alexandre Granjeiro, the head of the Brazilian Health Ministry's division on Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS (ETS/Sida), said in an interview with IPS.

A number of factors have come together to fuel the spread of HIV/AIDS among adolescents in recent years.

"Besides having less bargaining power to convince their partners to use condoms, girls tend to stop insisting on condom use once the relationship evolves into a more stable one based on ties of affection," when they begin to use other contraceptive methods, putting a higher priority on preventing pregnancy, said Granjeiro.

To that is added the fact that adolescent girls often get involved with older men, who have a higher rate of HIV/AIDS and "are less willing to use condoms," he said.

The growing incidence of HIV/AIDS among female adolescents is also directly related to the increasingly young age at which teenagers are becoming sexually active.

At a global level, the HIV infection rate is growing fast among the young: 67 percent of new cases in developing countries involve people between the ages of 15 and 24, and 64 percent of the people in that age group living with HIV/AIDS are women.

[jnarcus]

No but these areas are notorious for having men using anal sex as a form of birth control and that is exzactly why the homosecual community suffers from the same disease

[cyborg]

Labeling something a homosexual disease is a good way for heteros to deceive themselves.