[Askel5]

I still think run-of-mill Hepatitis in the gay community (and ensuing treatment for same) was a significant source for infection and a contributing reason their numbers rival those of hemophiliacs also infected with tainted blood derivatives.

I know very few AIDS-positive folks who don't also have Hep-C. Were they promiscuous sorts, I might be suspicious. They aren't ... not since the late-60's, anyway.

And those who've resisted longest the temptation to become lab rats at Charity are still alive, fwiw. All of those who clutched at AZT are long gone.

(What that portends for pregnant mothers in South Africa who are urged (or is it required?) to take AZT as a preventative measure "for their children" means, I hate to wonder.)

I suppose my observating over the years how many of my friends were used as willing human experimentation subjects -- much less the money your average pharma will blow at a medical convention -- has sort of soured me even further on those corporations whose primary profit is made in the realm of sexually transmitted disease and all things pertaining thereto ... including the roping in of EVERY infant for a preventative vaccine.

[CholeraJoe]

Most if not all of the "new" regimens of protease inhibitors for HIV infection also include AZT. Nursing mothers who take AZT cut their risk of transmitting HIV to the newborn by more than half.

AZT isn't perfect but it's not what kills people with HIV.

[DoughtyOne]

If it weren't for one of those vaccines, and yes a few deaths, Polio would still be maiming and killing 100s of thousands of children around the world. I know there are adverse reacions, and those reactions in your own child can be devistating. The alternative is exposure to just about all children to just about all childhood diseases. Talk to just about any public healthcare nurse. They'll nearly always urge the full course of childhood innoculations.