
How the war on AIDS was lost - cwan
http://aidwatchers.com/2010/02/how-the-war-on-aids-was-lost/
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maxklein
Read the actual survey:
[http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/2009/JC1700_Epi_Update_200...](http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/2009/JC1700_Epi_Update_2009_en.pdf)

It contains some very interesting information:

* AIDS has basically stabilized world wide. The number of new infections is only slightly higher than the number of deaths

* AIDS does not seem related to war or conflict zones in Africa. The warzones have low HIV prevalence and the most proposperous countries have high HIV

* AIDS seems to be a problem in Southern Africa and not over the entire continent

* Divorced people seem the most likely to have HIV

A quote:

 _Adult HIV prevalence in Côte d’Ivoire (3.7%) is more than twice as high as
in Liberia (1.7%) or Guinea (1.6%), even though these West African countries
share national borders (UNAIDS, 2008). Within the relatively small nation of
Benin, a more than 12-fold variation in HIV prevalence among pregnant women
(ranging from 0.4% to 3.8%) has been documented among the country’s depart-
ments_

* HIV peaked in the mid 1990s. We are now in a decline period. The epidemic is not getting worse - it's getting better

* There is no significant correlation between prevalence of sexual concurrency and HIV prevalence at the country or community level

* Clinical trials have confirmed the results from observational epidemiology that male circumcision reduces transmission of HIV among men

 _For sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, median reported HIV prevalence among sex
workers is 19%

_ In a study in Mombasa, Kenya, 43.0% of men who have sex only with other men
tested HIV-positive

I'll read the entire article later and write up anything interesting I find.
But in general, the facts about AIDS do not really sync with the stereotypes.

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kqr2
Also check out Hans Rosling's Ted Talk on HIV:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_the_truth_about_hiv.ht...](http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_the_truth_about_hiv.html)

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i386
The Catholic church will have you believe that that the only prevention method
is abstinence - which really hasn't helped the African continent in curbing
their HIV infection rate (some statistics show that as much of 60% of the
populace are HIV positive).

The Church isn't guilty on its own by dissuading the use of condoms - there is
a whole lot of cultural stigma attached to the use of condoms too but it
sickens me that an organisation that spearheads other great humanitarian
efforts can be so blind about this issue.

Earth to Church: People have it off.

~~~
maxklein
Your comment is uninformed and silly. This post links to an article with
information from the UN. This survey has well researched numbers on the number
of people who have AIDS in Africa. This number is 25 million. 25 million is
not 60% of the population.

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i386
I'll apologise here - I misread the source I was using. The figure of 60% is
not the amount of people in Africa with HIV. According to the source
,wikipedia (reputable, I know), "Africa is estimated to have more than 60% of
the AIDS-infected population".

Thanks for pulling me up but regardless: its still sickens me that 25 million
people have HIV.

~~~
maxklein
Yes, but I'd like to point out something you did that is worse than misquoting
a statistic: You painted AIDS as an African disease. Rather than speaking
about AIDS as something that affects all of us in the world, you behave as if
it is something that affects Africa only.

In effect, you contribute to a stereotype that the African is a disease
carrier.

Yes, you did not mean it that way, but if you really want to contribute and
help, you can start by pointing out that HIV affects everyone in the world,
and it's not something African and it's not something that you should
associate with Africa only.

In doing so, you are hurting Africa (in showing it to be a diseased continent)
and you are hurting the fight against Aids (by making people think it is
something far away and foreign).

My plea to everyone is this - when you talk about AIDS, talk about it as
something that affects us and people around us, and not as something that
belongs in some jungle. That's the tiny thing you can do to help.

~~~
i386
Whoa, backup here buddy. I'm homosexual and I'm all too familiar with the HIV
issue. I have friends who have HIV and we do not consider it to be some
"jungle disease". And by the same token its not a homosexual one either.

So thanks for clearing that up for me.

~~~
maxklein
I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about the people who read what you
write.

