How many people do you know who got AIDS?

[Alex DeLarge]

I don't officially know anyone with HIV/AIDS.. But there's definitely a handful of people who I think have a good chance of having it. Mainly hard drug abusers (heroin).. I know one of my old friends who's a junkie now caught hepatitis through sharing needles.

But yeah, like a previous poster had stated.. HIV/AIDS is definitely more or less prevalent in communities based on their socio-economic status.. For instance, you're going to have more HIV positive people in the projects neighborhoods than in the upper middle class cul de sac.

Plus, biologically speaking.. 20% of the caucasian population carries a gene called the CCR-5 gene which gives a person immunity to most forms of HIV. However, this means there are still some forms of HIV an individual with that particular gene can catch. So it's not a 100% solution, but still gives caucasian peoples an upperhand in prevention of the virus.

 

[bigneil]

Think about this: 75% of us (3/4) have never even KNOWN someone who died of AIDS. But how often have we worried we might catch it?

What does this tell you? It's overblown. Just like the War on Terror and the Global Warming BS (oh and the hole in the Ozone layer).

 

[self-respect]

People don't die from AIDS or opportunistic infections anymore. Treatment's much better. I work in a hospital. I've seen people with CD4 counts of 4 still manage to survive and recover using HAART therapy.

AIDS was never the direct cause of death in the first place. The problem is that it weakens your immune system to such an extent that those people started developing AIDS-defining illnesses that would never have a chance to affect healthy people. Things like PCP pneumonia, fungal infections, many parasites, CMV. These were the killers.

Nowadays we have both prophylactic medications we give for people with low CD4 counts (<200) for protection, and they're usually hospitalized with earlier signs of candidiasis so that they can be force-fed their HAART therapy and their CD4 count can rebound and they won't develop CMV, MAI, toxoplasma, all the real uglies.

It's overblown if you still consider it as bad as it was in 1990, but it's out there. It's the most prevalent illness that most infectious disease specialists deal with. And there's a lot of people in ID. What does that tell you?

 

[cablecow15]

You do realize you're insane, right?

hes prolly Howie Mandel lol

 

[Just a Shot Away]

I know people who got herpes, but not aids.

:crackup: