No comment. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=564&e=5&u=/nm/20041201/ts_nm/aids_cases_dc
This is quite depressing and quite true. The causes are myriad: young gay men "rebelling" against the expectations of older gay men, black men who have sex with men who cannot admit that they're gay yet who think that AIDS is a gay man's disease, persons who think that highly active antiretroviral therapy reduces the risk of death (it does, of course, but not without side effects), and, most discouraging, gay men who assume that it's inevitable that they'll acquire HIV infection and thus don't bother to practice safe sex all of the time. What is almost equally scary are the numbers of infected persons who don't always take their medications (the brother of a friend of mine does this), thus allowing strains of the virus to acquire resistance to the drugs. Luckily, there are enough antiretrovirals out there now to limit the damage done by resistant viruses, but this may not always be the case. Some of the people who aren't taking all of their meds are merely being irresponsible, but many either have drug abuse problems or are in prison, thus limiting their likelihood of adherence to therapy. AIDS is no longer the fashionable cause that it once was, either, so there aren't as many efforts to combat it.
OK, Ian or ITN should be along any minute now to tell us how homosexuals "have it coming". 3.....2.....1....
Just wear a fvcking condom. I do it when I'm having heterosexual sex with people I don't know, where the risk of getting AIDS is virtually nil (altho there are lots of other nasties that are a lot more common), so there should be no excuse for gays not to wrap it up unless they're in a long-term relationship. Having unprotected sex, including straight sex but especially gay sex, when you're not 100% certain that the other person is disease-free is just plain stupid. The people that are getting AIDS do have it coming, not because they're gay but because they're fvcking (no pun intended) idiots. It's not rocket (no pun intented) science. And don't give me any "kids don't learn about condoms because of evil Christian fundamentalist right-wing neo-con fascist Nazi evil corporations teaching them about abstinence". Everyone over the age of 14 (and I'm being generous there) knows what a fvcking condom is. They're $1.50 each. If you don't use them, you're a moron and I have little sympathy when you end up with AIDS.
It might have something to do with the fact, they shove there cocks up other mens arses. That would be alright if they kept the same partner, but they shag anything gaylords. " Reggie am coming in left of you, * cant remember his name * am coming in right. Smokey and the Bandit. Classic film.
Yes, but here's some more information (anybody who's a physician, feel free to jump in and correct me, please, because I'm NOT a real doctor). Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) and Resistance: The problem with the antiretrovirals is that they are an extremely unforgiving regimen. Adherence needs to be either extremely high (like, above 90 percent at least) or extremely low to avoid resistance. Add to that the fact that they can have some nasty side effects and they can involve some really complex pill taking regimens, and you can expect to see even people trying very hard to do right and still miss enough doses to develop resistance. The good news is that they are coming up with newer ART combinations that easier to take, and new generations of ART altogether. So some of this is being eased, but right now resistance to ART looks more like an inevitable by-product of administering these regimens than simply the result of patient irresponsibility. Why is HIV on the Rise Among Gay and Bi Men?: This is a more speculative response. 1. The gay population here is the one that HIV hit first, and it still is a major component of the US population of people living with HIV (Blacks are being hit much harder than anybody else). 2. The advent of protease inhibitors and other kinds of ART promised (and largely delivered) to turn HIV/AIDS from a horrible, terminal illness to a 30-40 year manageable disease. For the younger generation of gay men, those who have no memory of large numbers of friends dying, this has eliminated much of the sense of risk connected to unprotected sex. Like all young men, homo-, hetero-, or whatevero, they think with the wrong head anyway. Combine hormones with a reduced sense of risk with a population with a higher than average rate of infection and you get an increase in that rate of infection. 3. It doesn't take much ignorance to have this kind of effect. One of the most rapidly increasing infection rates in the US belongs to people over 55. This is driven largely by the mistaken assumption (by doctors) that older people don't have much sex, so they don't talk to their patients about it and they don't think to screen for HIV when symptoms present, which facilitates the spreading of the virus, of course. It's also driven by people 55 and older assuming that whoever it is they are having sex with is safe because, well, they're older. edit: and why are Blacks being hit harder than anyone? Basically because there are more barriers to good medical care confronting Blacks than (almost) anyone elsein the US , which intensifies the impact of any disease on that population, so why should HIV be any different?
Worldwide, HIV/AIDS is a predominantly heterosexual disease. Stick to telling funny jokes about 2 turtles.
Simple. Dont Shag About. I dont, and i havent got AIDS, and shall i tell you why. Shes about so tall and says Dad do this, and Dad do that alot. Simple as. Unprotected sex, and the people who do this sort of thing, are fully aware of the consequences. Madness, sheer bloody madness.
Classic right-wing attitude. You know, it's possible to have sympathy for people who do stupid things.
Sounds like at least one of you is thinking with the right head. Not everybody is that smart or lucky. And not everybody is aware of the consequences of unprotected sex. My job leads me to interview lots of people with HIV, and it's amazing how little many of them know about the disease and how you get it.
It is so blatentely obvious. My daughters 5, and i'm worrying what sort of world she will grow up in. L-B. Dad i would like to go out with this guy called Flash. Me. HAhaha, locked in your bedroom, untill your 64.
Actually, it's not just right-wing. I have some sympathy for their plight, as I would for anyone facing death or disease, but at the same time want to bitch-slap them for being stupid and are more sympathetic to those who face death and disease for reasons beyond their control. Expecting people to take responsibility for their lives and make intelligent choices isn't strictly a right-wing concept. Oh my god [says the atheist] ... I've agreed with both Alex and Halliburton in the same week!
Almost everyone has had unsafe sex at some point in their life. In any case, once someone gets AIDS it's cruel to say "It's your fault!" Don't you think they know it? Additionally, some people get AIDS through no fault of their own (cheating or IV using spouses).
What the hell does this mean, aside from let's be cruel to the ********? Of course we want people to act responsibly. Duh. Unless you can build a time machine, I fail to see how this addresses the problem of people with AIDS.
Not really, i havent. Every partner i have had has been checked out from the doctors. Seriously mate, no 3 minuets in a toilet, with some skirt, is worth your life. I must be lucky, because it is blatently obvious to me.
It doesn't necessarily address the problem - but it wasn't meant to. However, it addresses, perhaps, why AIDS isn't a cause celebre, anymore. It addresses, perhaps, why some people might be more willing to donate to cancer research than AIDS research. Clearly, no one (I hope) is lumping together those folks who get AIDS innocently through transfusions, etc. (though I don't think anyone is seriously trying to hold those cases up as the majority of cases). I never endorsed being cruel to AIDS patients - that was your own extrapolation. But I'm not necessarily putting AIDS at the top of my list of problems in the world.
I wish information like this was taught more in schools. Yeah condoms prevent it, but obviously not everyone uses condoms. More education about the downside of these drugs can only be a good thing, and could lead to more emphasis on a vaccine to at least eliminate the problem for the future. I am discouraged that certain people think we need to spend more time on emphasizing the "keep your legs closed" lessons. Kids and adults will always do stupid things.
Unless you're arguing that married couples should always use condoms, there are quite a lot of innocent spouses (usually wives) with AIDS. In the WORLD? Wow, I'm consistintly stunned by the things I read here.
"AIDS on rise among US gay men" ~~~~~~~~and~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Prison sentences on rise for US bank robbers"