U.S. to Distribute 250,000 Quick AIDS Tests

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[chance33_98]

U.S. to Distribute 250,000 Quick AIDS Tests

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saying that one in four Americans with the AIDS (news - web sites) virus is unaware of it, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) contracted on Thursday to buy 250,000 quick-test kits to try and slow the infection rate.

The CDC plans to distribute the tests, which can give a result in 20 minutes, to the 50 state health departments in an attempt to slow the current rate of 40,000 new infections every year in the United States.

The CDC estimates that as many as 950,000 Americans do not know they are infected with the virus, which is fatal, incurable, and easily passed from person to person through sexual intercourse, sharing needles or blood.

People who do not know they are infected can infect others. Babies can be infected by their mothers through breast-feeding . Blood is screened for HIV (news - web sites) and other viruses.

People who do not know they are infected cannot be prescribed the drug cocktails that can keep them healthy longer.

The CDC published a study on Thursday showing that Americans who wait until late to be tested for AIDS -- usually after they have started to become sick from the immune system-destroying illness -- are more likely to be black, Hispanic and heterosexual and to have a high school education or less.

"During 1994 to 1999, among persons who had HIV diagnosed, 43 percent were tested late in the infection," the CDC said -- meaning they developed full-blown AIDS within a year of diagnosis.

The CDC questioned nearly 6,000 people at 16 sites across the country for its study, published in the agency's weekly report on disease and death.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based Orasure said the CDC had contracted to spend $2 million on 250,000 of its recently approved quick-test kits, which can detect HIV in a drop of blood taken from a finger prick.

Half of all new HIV infections are among women, usually young women. Because AIDS at first hit the homosexual community hard when the epidemic started in the 1980s, many people do not know it is most commonly passed on through heterosexual relations, according to the CDC.

Globally, AIDS infects 40 million people and has killed 25 million.

[Atlas Sneezed]

"The CDC plans to distribute the tests, which can give a result in 20 minutes, to the 50 state health departments"

Clever. 90+% of cases are in a few states, and they are sending them to all 50. I guess they will be ferreting out all those unknown AIDS sufferers in South Dakota, Idaho, and Maine.

[chance33_98]

Too bad aids dosen't make your penis glow in the dark, california would have enough light to end the energy crisis.

[glock rocks]

as long as the KY Kowboys are pushing the NEA agenda, this country will always have a good crop of people just literally dying to have anal sex.

they die young, they don't reproduce, yet their numbers are growing.

behold the power of money and influence.... hmmm... wonder how much of that influence is queer blackmail. there are a lot of rich homosexuals. I imagine if I had invested the daycare, the orthodontist and schooling bills for my four kids, I'd be pretty well off, too.

canada? behold the manifesto at work. sad, really.

and no, I'm not a homophobe. I think they can be quite amusing for the most part... until you see them dying in a gurney with tubes and wires sticking out of them.

and did ya notice the hetero epidemic never materialized here?

[Derrald]

"and did ya notice the hetero epidemic never materialized here?" ummm.. where exactly are you saying 'here' is? If you mean the US, then where did you read this about the lack of a heterosexual AIDS epidemic?

to the post in general - knowledge is the greatest weapon against anything. don't underestimate its use until you see the results

[TBall]

"Half of all new HIV infections are among women, usually young women" I find that hard to believe.

[goodnesswins]

Is there a heterosexual Aids epidemic here in the US? Please enlighten us.

[Derrald]

there's no epidemic here in the US. I dont see the need to classify it as a non-hetero epidemic, as it is also a non-homo epidemic. Take a good look at the ol' CDC website.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/od/program_brief_2001/estimated_incidence_of_aids.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/software/apids/apids2000manual.pdf

http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/od/program_brief_2001/Estimated%20Incidence%20of%20AIDS%20and%20Deaths%20of%20MSM%20with%20AIDS%201985-1999,%20United%20States%20Quarter-Year%20of%20Diagnosis%20Death.htm

Both are pretty small numbers in the scheme of things and neither are at epidemical proportions.

[Atlas Sneezed]

"...where did you read this about the lack of a heterosexual AIDS epidemic?"

Several responses:

It is the dog that didn't bark.

You apparently believe in "Magic."

Most "heterosexual" cases involve people who got it homosexually or from needles, and are lying about how they got it.

Those women who have been infected heterosexually have typically had unprotected sex hundreds of times with an infected man.

There has never been a confirmed case of a man being heterosexually infected by a woman in the US.

To learn more, start here:
http://www.fumento.com/pozaids.html