On the spread of AIDS through rural Kenyan communities

[Sumadinho]

“None of us is jealous about someone else sleeping with our wives because we all do it,” said Nassir, who says he has slept with the wives of many men, even though he suspects he has HIV. :eek:

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/todaysfeatures/2004/February/todaysfeatures_February21.xml&section=todaysfeatures

wtF**k?

ISIOLO, Kenya - Men in the arid, remote Kenyan town of Isiolo have long had sex with young virgins to purge themselves of afflictions or curses.
Now the age-old custom practised by the nomadic peoples of Kenya’s northeastern province is increasingly being used as a cure for HIV/AIDS.

Nassir hesitantly admits he slept with a nine-year-old girl because the clan elders in Isiolo, 200 km (124.3 miles) northeast of Kenyan capital Nairobi, said it would rid him of frequent bouts of illness brought on by HIV.

“I was given a girl of nine years to sleep with for a week,” Nassir said. “I took pity on her but if it wasn’t for this disease I wouldn’t have slept with her...I had to do what the elders had said.”

Isiolo’s pastoralist community practices a mix of traditional African beliefs. Illiteracy is high and AIDS is shrouded in stigma and superstition.

“I am still afraid (that I may die), but there are many people from my area who have done it,” Nassir said. “Many survive, many die.”

Although he paid 15,000 shillings ($195.9) and his mother gave up two goats for the purging ceremony, Nassir still gets ill once in a while and goes for treatment in a clinic run by a local charity whose Swahili name Pepo La Tumaini Jangwani, means Wind of Hope in the Arid Land.

After the ceremony, which includes gouging out a goat’s heart while it is still alive, the people of the village engage in a sexual orgy intended to help a son or brother cleanse himself. :confused:

[JBigjake]

Wait until PETA hears about this!

[Chris M.]

Gee, maybe it would be a better idea to get these people effective HIV drug treatments.

[Chris M.]

How is that going to stop them from unprotected sex with multiple partners, if it is happening.

I was thinking more about the prevention of grown men boinking nine year olds to fend off death.

I'm all for passing out condoms and taking a crack at educating the adults about HIV and sex with multiple partners as well.

It probably wouldn't hurt to have some of these husbands start beating the piss out of guys that sleep with their wives.

[bojendyk]

The person who started this thread has started multiple threads lately in which he cuts and pastes rants from white power websites about racial intermarriage and the "final solution" for blacks. He's a stone-cold racist and a plagiarist, and I've reported one of other posts to the mods.

Perhaps a good discussion could be started regarding the superstitions practiced in some parts of the world re: HIV cures. However, no thread that this dipshit starts will lead to a productive or interesting discussion. He's only interested in making monkey noises and throwing bananas on the field.

[dfb547490]

The person who started this thread has started multiple threads lately in which he cuts and pastes rants from white power websites about racial intermarriage and the "final solution" for blacks. He's a stone-cold racist and a plagiarist, and I've reported one of other posts to the mods.

Perhaps a good discussion could be started regarding the superstitions practiced in some parts of the world re: HIV cures. However, no thread that this dipshit starts will lead to a productive or interesting discussion. He's only interested in making monkey noises and throwing bananas on the field.

Never seen any of his other posts (and for some reason I'm not able to search them), but that said this isn't close to the first time I've heard about this. Blind squirrel, nut, etc.

[bojendyk]

Never seen any of his other posts (and for some reason I'm not able to search them), but that said this isn't close to the first time I've heard about this. Blind squirrel, nut, etc.

The Perot Factor thread has one of his other posts, and he started a thread in the education thread about how black persons have intrinsically lower IQs. (The latter is especially risible. The "PhD" who had done research he plagiarizes on the matter has a PhD in . . . are you ready for it? Not genetics, not biology, not any of the sciences but . . . Slavic languages!)

[DoctorD]

Very unfortunate that the thread starter may have unorthodox political views, but the reaction to the AIDS epidemic is colored by behaviors that promote it. For example, I'm not happy that my tax money is going to help distribute anit-AIDS drugs while there are still magazines promoting bareback sex. It is no different than quarantining someone with encephalitis.

And cultural factors have contributed to the spread of AIDS in Africa. Just distributing condoms will not help.

[bungadiri]

Very unfortunate that the thread starter may have unorthodox political views, but the reaction to the AIDS epidemic is colored by behaviors that promote it. For example, I'm not happy that my tax money is going to help distribute anit-AIDS drugs while there are still magazines promoting bareback sex. It is no different than quarantining someone with encephalitis.

And cultural factors have contributed to the spread of AIDS in Africa. Just distributing condoms will not help.
What is the full spectrum the factors driving the spread of HIV right now?
Where do the items you've just listed rank within that spectrum in terms of importance?

[YankHibee]

Very unfortunate that the thread starter may have unorthodox political views, but the reaction to the AIDS epidemic is colored by behaviors that promote it. For example, I'm not happy that my tax money is going to help distribute anit-AIDS drugs while there are still magazines promoting bareback sex. It is no different than quarantining someone with encephalitis.

And cultural factors have contributed to the spread of AIDS in Africa. Just distributing condoms will not help.

What should be done?

[bojendyk]

Very unfortunate that the thread starter may have unorthodox political views, but the reaction to the AIDS epidemic is colored by behaviors that promote it. For example, I'm not happy that my tax money is going to help distribute anit-AIDS drugs while there are still magazines promoting bareback sex. It is no different than quarantining someone with encephalitis.

When given to expectant mothers, anti-AIDS drugs can suppress virus to the point that it won't be passed to the child. There are compelling reasons to ensure that antiretroviral therapy is available in Africa, regardless of the current cultural situation

And cultural factors have contributed to the spread of AIDS in Africa. Just distributing condoms will not help.

Distribution of condoms is part of changing those cultural customs. Don't forget that it was only 20 or 25 years ago that the general public considered AIDS to be a gay disease and not a general threat to the public heath. Remarkable changes in cultural behavior with regard to health risks have occurred in this country; there's no reason to believe that similar changes can't be effected elsewhere in the world.

If I'm not mistaken, Uganda has made huge strides in limiting the spread of infection through a combination of condom availability, public education, and use of antiretroviral therapy. There are some success stories in Africa.

But all of this is beside the point. The thread starter has made several recent posts that do nothing more than, as I wrote earlier, make monkey noises and throw bananas on the pitch. He's a pig-********ing loser with nothing to contribute to the general discussion.

[Revolt]

Hard as it is to consider, this may be the most depressing thread here - for many, many reasons.

[Crimen y Castigo]

I think subscribing to papal infallibility is one of those traditions that spreads AIDS.

But maybe that's just me.

[christopher d]

There have already been some lively discussions in this forum about the use of spiritual means of curing illness. One discussing its gross misuse won't hurt.

I have a soft spot for the concept of village shaman or witch doctor. But whatever doctrine these "elders" are using to come up with a cure (for anything) of sex with a nine-year-old is, shall we put it politely, intrinsically flawed. :mad:

As to the idea that superstition itself is the culprit here... Let's just say it's hard to comprehend a matriarchal, matrifocal or even gender-neutral society coming up with a similar "folk remedy". :mad:, :mad: again.

[christopher d]

Whoops. Seems today's NonSequitor would suggest I jumped the gun on the above ;)

http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/uc/20060405/lnq060406.gif

[Riz]

I think subscribing to papal infallibility is one of those traditions that spreads AIDS.

But maybe that's just me.

IIRC the teaching regarding the use of condoms to prevent the transmission of HIV is not an infallible teaching.

I'll cruise by the .va archives at some point today and doublecheck myself.

[bungadiri]

Yep, it's "cultural factors" spreading HIV in Africa. :rolleyes:

http://www.monitor.co.ug/news/news040513.php

Makerere University lecturer Prof. Sam Luboga, has said some people are too poor to afford a packet of condom that they have resorted to re-sterilising used condoms using steam from cooking food.

Luboga said this on Saturday at the opening of the Aids Actions Week at Makerere University. The weeklong conference is addressing the emerging challenges in equitable HIV/Aids care.
"We are promoting condom use but do people have the money?" Luboga asked.

"The people are poor, they re-sterilise condoms on Luwombo to use them again because they don't have money. Poverty is their biggest problem," he said.