Talud's post

Does HIV/AIDS cause death?

I have been having a conversation with a BLOGGER by the name of Man_with_no_Name. This is my response to him, now my response will be long as well so I decided to make this a regular BLOG post, plus I have a feeling that we both might learn something and help educate others so this needs to be front and center. I hope he does not mind this and I hope he agrees that we might be able to help others understand what is going on with HIV/AIDS. Below was going to be my response till I figured out it was over 1k words. I normally would break this up into two seperate posts but I figured it would be best to leave it be. Sorry for the length but this subject is very important to me and I get passionate when talking about it.

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Wow that is a long post man; I will check out your BLOG and read what you have to say. I am interested in reading everything I can as that is a good way to learn. And just because someone has taken the time and spent the money to get a PHD, doesn’t make them any less of a crackpot, just a crackpot with time and money; remember those that can not do a real job, teach. When our kids start to receive a better education in the public schools then maybe my view on teachers will change. Right now we rank near last in industrial nations in our little ones being educated and I can not take a teacher or professor seriously with such staggering failures on that front. I want readers sure, who doesn’t? But I am not going to play the PC card, I do not believe in being PC as I think that is causing a lot of our problems in society. We are overly worried how others will feel when we state our opinions or just the honest to god truth. I am open minded enough to read information that you base your opinions on, and if they make sense after I weight them with everything else on the subject I will amend my opinion.

Gattina said the opposite of what you are saying, she stated that “Do you not read the US news” meaning that I should believe what the media is saying in this story and others. In case you are wondering, a majority of the papers and news agencies report how poorly this fight is going and many state it is because the US government did not give enough to the UN to fight this disease globally. I responded that was her problem she was buying into the propaganda spread by the US media. Every wonder why Hollywood and the Media spread such negative views of America? Why not show what those of that live day to day and not rely on people to watch us so we can make millions to then shove our opinions down their throats? Anyway I think you mistook what she said as she is definitely one of the little sheep that buys everything the media tells her.

Now to the main substance of your post, I will agree that there is a lot of money tied to the HIV/AIDS debate. The conference in Toronto showed just that, in fact it was blatantly obvious they were more worried about gathering money for them than taking this disease head on. They all condemn the US for giving its money directly to the local governments in Africa, the fact is and the article showed that it was doing much more good in the last 5 years than previously when we just gave our money to the UN and other organizations. In my opinion this was the case because like any large organization you have lots of hands in the pot, and they tend to take that money for other reasons than what it was donated for. I have no love for the UN and I feel that it is the largest reason for the World being so disrupted. More good can be done at the local level than at the international level as this article showed.

I think it is important to have accurate information, AZT did cause a lot of deaths, one report was 2 deaths per 1000 I think. I know that deaths were higher in 1989-1999 (I think have to recheck and I have not time right now) when AZT was prescribed as the main medicine to helping HIV patients. The fact is though that AZT did let them live a few more years than they might otherwise have had at that time. But with research there comes better and more efficient drugs, which is why the deaths to HIV/AIDS have fallen to around 15k a year in the US. There is still over half a million diagnose with the virus in the US, this is according to CDC. Now you are correct in saying that there is a lot of miss reporting. In fact if you look for the information you will find that they are uncertain as to who has contacted this virus in the US.

A majority of HIV/AIDS cases in the US are among the Gay and Drug users in the states. Not to say all but a majority. The reason for this, and I am not sure if this holds true I am sure someone will be able to shed light if I am wrong, is that Gay men do not generally wear condoms, which would help keep the spreading of this disease down in their group. Drug users that get HIV/AIDS get it from dirty needles. Now I think the reason we are seeing a drop is that people are getting educated as to what spreads HIV/AIDS and they are taking the necessary steps to protect themselves and those around them. Local governments, as in a City close to me does this, are setting up areas where drug addicts can come and get a clean needle. Now I do not agree with this as they should be helping these people get off their drug addictions, but at least they are helping in saving their lives from HIV/AIDS and having them spread it to those they come in contact with either sexually or by sharing a needle.

And that I think answers your question in your last paragraph of your reply. I look forward to your reply and will be making my way to your BLOG in the next few days. Holiday weekend and I am busy as all get out