World unprepared for a new HIV epidemic

SciDev.net ^ | 16/05/18 | Edsel Maurice Salvana

[fwdude]

HIV, the fastest mutating organism, now poses the threat of a second drug-resistant epidemic.

On 1 December 2011, President Obama declared that we now have the tools for an 'AIDS-free generation'.

Made just over 30 years after HIV was discovered, this declaration was a stunning turnaround in the fight against HIV and AIDS. The world had come together to fight a scourge that had killed over 30 million people and transformed it into a manageable, chronic illness. Persons infected with HIV were now referred to as “people living with HIV (PLHIV),” highlighting that HIV is not only a survivable disease but also one where normal life is possible.

While this rosy picture of HIV elimination may be achievable in theory, the reality is far more depressing. As the world gathers in Amsterdam this 23-27 July for the AIDS 2018 conference, a long shadow hangs over the celebration. In the bleak light of a rapid increase in HIV drug resistance, in the poorest parts of the world, it appears that a second drug-resistant HIV epidemic is on the horizon.

[Yaelle]

Heterosexual aids is not a myth. A woman’s membranes take in just about any substance or virus. Far more than a penis. Think of all the African wives who have died, and think of their unborn children who have also perished, as well as the born children who were infected in the womb.

Believe it or not, gay hookups (if only oral is engaged in) have less of a chance of transmitting hiv than a poor woman not knowing her husband is bringing it to her. With that said, in western nations, more gay men got infected by the sheer numbers of sexual connections. So the smaller population spread in a huge spiral mass.

[Yaelle]

This alleged epidemic concerns us Normals - how exactly?

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It’s a sexually transmitted disease. Sure, your chance of getting it is far greater if you receive anal sex from a man. But if you are a woman and you have unprotected sex with either someone you don’t really know well, or with your husband / boyfriend who is cheating with men, hookers, women he doesn’t know, THEN YOU ARE AT RISK. If your daughter makes a bad choice, she is at risk. If you are a man with any kind of immune assault, from a cold to an autoimmune disease like lupus, and you hook up one night with a woman you don’t know, you could be infected. It’s less likely for men, but if your own immune system is compromised (and many men don’t know if theirs is, even athletes can sometimes have overworked Immune systems), you could catch it.

[Chainmail]

PARTICULARLY the pumpkin patch!

You know how immoral those things are...

[GOPJ]

What matters is HOW MUCH MONEY PER PATIENT.

Of course more money is spent on cancer and heart disease - millions of Americans have died of those diseases over the last 30 years. How many Americans have died of AIDS in the last 30 years? Then divide it out. MUCH more money has been spent on every AIDS patient - - by far.

[Morpheus2009]

Even more is the fact that that 70 percent comes from a small fraction of the overall population.