Ending AIDS in Africa

[Hash (imported)]

In Africa rape is more prevalent, but extra martial activity, according to my friend from Kenya is accepted and expected, especially by the men. Maybe African women could learn something from Thai wives to help protect themselves. Thai women scare their husbands with the threat of penis amputation if they catch them with another woman and many have actually amputated their husbands penises. It's not fool proof, but it might help slow AIDs in Africa. Poverty might also add to the problem. I believe severely impoverished people might not care about living and therefore they stop caring about living. It's as if they say, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die."

You can educate people about the deadly danger of AIDS, but all the knowledge in the world cannot stop AIDS completely, because sexual desire most often trumps & overtakes the mind. It's the lack of control that's maddening, men & women just can't control themselves and they throw caution to the wind. They take huge risks that may cost them their lives. They trust when they shouldn't trust. If humans could control their sexual appetites, then AIDs would not be a problem, in fact, STD's would not be so problematic. So kill the sex drive and save lives. The sexual drive is the main cause of spreading AIDS, without the pervasive sex drive, AIDS would cease to exist, of course, so might the human race. I do believe that monogamy could help, but few men are able to maintain monogamous relationships. Marriage for most men is a hard trial because women just cannot keep up and give men the sex that they want and need. Not to blame wives, but sex is not as important to them as it is to their husbands, so that's another reason they seek it outside of marriage. In Africa it's almost expected that the husband will have sex outside of marriage.

[Francis (imported)]

. Maybe African women could learn something from Thai wives to help protect themselves. Thai women scare their husbands with the threat of penis amputation if they catch them with another woman and many have actually amputated their husbands penises. It's not fool proof, but it might help slow AIDs in Africa.

Hate to spoil the party but I read somewhere that Thailand is close behind Africa with AIDS prevalence. Thailand is another country where attitudes to sex are very liberal and the causes of the spread there are probably not a lot different from Africa.

It appears to me that AIDS is can only be really limited by the rigid use of protection (condoms) and being careful with whom you have sex. Now that most people are aware of the dangers, at least in the developed western nations, AIDS is not a big issue and would probably eventually die out if it was not being continually reintroduced by careless travellers from overseas.

On the issue of the type of transmissions I beleive that it is not particular about whether the transmission is via anal or vaginal sex. There is very little difference between the colon and the internal skin of the vagina. Some SRS proceedures use a section of the colon to line the artificially constructed vagina. Both are really a kind o mucous membrane, somewhat fragile and equally subject to friction damage from vigorous thrusting as is the outer skin of the penis. Ever had a sore and tender member after a hard night out?? Avenues provided by other STD diseases probably also promote transmission

One of the real problems in Africa apart from the culture is that condoms cost money which most of them do not have A second problem is that a lot of the extramarital activity is conducted at beer joints called shabeens usually with a bevy of girls in shacks out the back. If you have spent all you money on beer and can't afford both the condom and the girl, guess which one wins out. After the good time in town he promptly takes it home to mama which is why it is highly prevalent in married families. Prostitutes do not have long lives in these countries. One infected prostitute can, and probably does, eventually infect most of the males in a village or at least the younger ones.

It is also believed that AIDS originated in the chimpanzees which in modern times, more and more came to be regarded as bush meat and was transferred to the populace through this means. Also there is some discussion that the Salk polio vaccine was responsible for the original outbreak in the US since chimpanzees were involved in the production of the vaccine. Interestingly the first recorded AIDS case was a child in the Mid-West of the United States about the time the Salk vaccine was introduced. The periodic outbreaks of the wasting diseases referred to above may have originated from the native's use of chimpanzee bush meat which source vector will probably dies out when the chimps become scarce and the hunters less numerous due to the ravages of the disease. :)

Finally I note that there may soon be a cure. Work contunues in developing and AIDS vaccine and there are now drugs and treatment regimes which are able to control it for many years but not cure it. Incidentally there are some people who are immune to HIV again suggesting that a vaccine is possible. However it won't die out any more than syphylis and gonnorhea haven't died out notwithstanding that both of these have been curable with antibiotics for around 50 years.

Not sure what all this speil is leading to. Probably that the reality is that AIDS will always be with them (and also us to some degree) even if a cure is developed. If they want to stay healthy, they will have to give up both gay and hetero barebacking:(:(:(

Also I think that ending AIDS in Africa will be a pipe dream, long in coming if ever.

[Kortpeel (imported)]

I think that ending AIDS in Africa will be a pipe dream, long in coming if ever.

Naah. Here in South Africa every African male knows that fucking a virgin will cure H.I.V.

Also, Jacob Zuma, our president not yet elect, is of the opinion that taking a shower after unprotected sex will also prevent infection.

Besides, condoms are for sissies.

And everyone here knows that H.I.V. was an apartheid plot by the old National Party when it was in power to wipe out black people.

Kortpeel

[coinflipper_21 (imported)]

I was talking with someone who recently came back from a trip to promote business development opportunities in Africa. According to him, ending AIDS in Africa may be a pipe dream until the leaders of some African nations reduce their corruption, stop aggrandizing their personal power, and exhibit real consideration of their own people. In countries with no real communications system, no real transportation system, and no real wholesale distribution system for foods and medicine, the medical personnel operate under unbelievably primitive conditions. Conducting the sort of massive public health campaign, including the campaign to alter cultural attitudes, is not beyond their desires, simply vastly beyond their current capabilities. Even the methods of management of HIV infection, that make it no longer a death sentence in the developed world, are beyond the financial and medical infrastructures of these countries. In some parts of Africa, an entire generation has been nearly been wiped out by HIV leaving only children and the elderly, and it is a continuing struggle to avoid loosing the children as they mature and become sexually active.

What about stopping the spread of AIDS in the developed world? Are we in the United States ready to treat HIV as a regular public health issue? Are we ready to allow health departments to investigate and track down sources of infection and get people into treatment as they would with any common infectious disease like typhoid, tuberculosis, measles, syphilis, or gonorrhea? (Well, that's what health departments used to before their funding was cut.) What will it take in this country to tackle this issue head-on, change our own cultural attitudes, and stop the spread of HIV here?

Many things can be done here, universal condom use by men, serious sex education that presents the actual facts, not moral judgments, standardized campaigns to contain STDs for all health departments in the country, regulated prostitution, STD only dating services, and generally building a national sense of sexual responsibility. OK, I admit that that last idea is a bit grandiose. There are very few of us who are anything like responsible in the heat of passion, and society may have to get fairly draconian with those few people who would absolutely refuse to be responsible, but there are things that can be done now. Who knows? Such an effort may even create jobs.

[IbPervert (imported)]

How Aids spread in every day language....the more people you have sex with the bigger the chance of getting it. Conversely if you only have sex with your self you can not get it.

[mrt (imported)]

I'm old enough to remember quarentine and how people with dangerous diseases were not allowed to mingle with those that might catch it. I can't easily imagine how that would work with AIDs however.

Personal freedom is important. Does it trump public heath? I would not want to be the one saying that people who are sick would need to wear the Star of David (Ala the Nazis) either. So, what do we do?

I'm serious in saying this. Pray! For everyone who has it. And those that will. Pray for the people who cure stuff to figure this one out. Or come up with some kind of non nazi like solution that people can live with. Pray for Africa. It seems like each generation has to have SOME kind of mass death thing going on. Be it War or Illness.

I was talking with someone who recently came back from a trip to promote business development opportunities in Africa. According to him, ending AIDS in Africa may be a pipe dream until the leaders of some African nations reduce their corruption, stop aggrandizing their personal power, and exhibit real consideration of their own people. In countries with no real communications system, no real transportation system, and no real wholesale distribution system for foods and medicine, the medical personnel operate under unbelievably primitive conditions. Conducting the sort of massive public health campaign, including the campaign to alter cultural attitudes, is not beyond their desires, simply vastly beyond their current capabilities. Even the methods of management of HIV infection, that make it no longer a death sentence in the developed world, are beyond the financial and medical infrastructures of these countries. In some parts of Africa, an entire generation has been nearly been wiped out by HIV leaving only children and the elderly, and it is a continuing struggle to avoid loosing the children as they mature and become sexually active.

What about stopping the spread of AIDS in the developed world? Are we in the United States ready to treat HIV as a regular public health issue? Are we ready to allow health departments to investigate and track down sources of infection and get people into treatment as they would with any common infectious disease like typhoid, tuberculosis, measles, syphilis, or gonorrhea? (Well, that's what health departments used to before their funding was cut.) What will it take in this country to tackle this issue head-on, change our own cultural attitudes, and stop the spread of HIV here?

Many things can be done here, universal condom use by men, serious sex education that presents the actual facts, not moral judgments, standardized campaigns to contain STDs for all health departments in the country, regulated prostitution, STD only dating services, and generally building a national sense of sexual responsibility. OK, I admit that that last idea is a bit grandiose. There are very few of us who are anything like responsible in the heat of passion, and society may have to get fairly draconian with those few people who would absolutely refuse to be responsible, but there are things that can be done now. Who knows? Such an effort may even create jobs.

[DavidB (imported)]

so it seems to me that some of the posts regarding this issue were slightly homophobic, and yes i take offense at that.

Yeah the gay culture had its free love time during the 80's and it sucked for us because thats when aids became an epidemic, but please let us not forget the free love experiment of the baby boomer generation of the 60's and 70's, who would then turn into the hypocritical christian majority as they got older.

and one minor point the fastest growing group of HIV infections is in straight 16-25 year olds and has been for years. not gays.

[IbPervert (imported)]

I'm old enough to remember quarentine and how people with dangerous diseases were not allowed to mingle with those that might catch it. I can't easily imagine how that would work with AIDs however.

Personal freedom is important. Does it trump public heath? I would not want to be the one saying that people who are sick would need to wear the Star of David (Ala the Nazis) either. So, what do we do?

I'm serious in saying this. Pray! For everyone who has it. And those that will. Pray for the people who cure stuff to figure this one out. Or come up with some kind of non nazi like solution that people can live with. Pray for Africa. It seems like each generation has to have SOME kind of mass death thing going on. Be it War or Illness.

A very good example of trumping personal freedom would be typhoid Mary. She was a carrier of typhoid fever and infected some 47 people of which four died. The women denied being a carrier and was warned not to work in the food industry, but she kept on being a cook for individual families. Making a long story short she was forcibly quarantined by the state of New York.

[calmeilles (imported)]

A very good example of trumping personal freedom would be typhoid Mary. She was a carrier of typhoid fever and infected some 47 people of which four died. The women denied being a carrier and was warned not to work in the food industry, but she kept on being a cook for individual families. Making a long story short she was forcibly quarantined by the state of New York.

That is a good example that illustrates when a state is right to intervene.

Acting against someone proven to be a danger in the interest of the greater community is one thing. Acting on the possibility that a person may be is quite another.

Matthew

[mrt (imported)]

That is a good example that illustrates when a state is right to intervene.

Acting against someone proven to be a danger in the interest of the greater community is one thing. Acting on the possibility that a person may be is quite another.

Matthew

Re: The homophobic comment. AIDs doesn't care who it infects. This is a problem for all of us. I pray for "Africa" not Hetrosexual Africa...

Wow food for thought. Yes, I'm sure there are people who knowingly have sex with uninfected people without even trying to protect them. Are they "Criminal"? I think... so...

If I had Typhoid and went around coughing in the salads of people what excuse would I have if they were made sick? But what do we do with these people? Lock them up? Put them on Lepers island?

Its a bit mind boggling.