Dr Rick

The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 2002 reported that 40,000,000 people worldwide are infected with HIV; the majority of those infected are heterosexual and aquired the disease via heterosexual contact. 3,000,000 people died from HIV last year, and most of them were heterosexual.

The infection is spreading, and it is out of control in parts of China, eastern Europe, Africa, and central Asia. There are now seven African countries (Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) where more than 1 in 5 people between the ages of 15 and 49 years are infected with HIV, and another six countries where more than 1 in 10 are infected.

The UNAIDS estimates that as of last year 14,000,000 children have been orphaned by HIV and that by the year 2010, orphans (children under the age of 15 whose mothers, fathers, or both have died) will account for 15 to 25 percent or more of all children in 12 sub-Saharan African countries; most of these children will have lost both their parents to AIDS.

Also by 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau projects that life expectancy in some countries in sub-Saharan Africa will fall to near 30 years, levels not seen since the end of the 19th century. Without AIDS, life expectancy in Botswana would be 74 years in 2010; with AIDS it is projected to be 27 years.

Certain sex practices increase the risk of HIV aquisition; these include promiscuity, prostitution, anal intercourse and unprotected sex. The rate of female-to-male transmission is lower than the reverse, but if it was non-existent or insignificant, heterosexual sex would not be the primary cause of HIV transmission.

Rick

[ September 12, 2002: Message edited by: rbochnermd ]</p>

Amen-Moses

HIV is not a single virus, we don't know where it came from or when but some Northern European populations carry indicators for the virus that hints at it having been around in Europe sometime in the distant past (some investigators are looking at plague outbreaks in the middle ages as maybe having been assisted in part by the prevalence of HIV, i.e those most affected by HIV having a reduced ability to fight against a variety of diseases that became epidemics).

The most prevalent variant of HIV is the one ravaging Africa, this is the most original strain that we can identify at present although it could have been introduced into Africa sometime in the 18th or 19th centuries. This variant is almost wholly spread by heterosexual sex and is not easily spread anally.

The second most prevalent is the second variant identified and is a mutation of the original that occured sometime in the late sixties or early seventies, this mutation seems to have occured in a single individual who either emigrated to the US or who visited. This mutated variant is longer lasting outside the body and particularly likes anal transmission, it is also more virulent that the first strain and causes AIDs faster.

There are around 2 or 3 other strains which have either mutated from the original strain or the second strain but at present the 2nd strain is the most virulent of the lot.

So in conclusion we should stop talking about AIDs as a single entity and start specifying which HIV strain we are talking about as they are all different!

Amen-Moses

Marz Blak

Amen-Moses:

You seem to know a lot about HIV. What about the strain(s) prevalent in southeast/eastern Asia and Haiti? Are they more closely related to the "heterosexual" strains (quotes because I know it is an oversimplification) prevalent in Africa, or the "homosexual" strains prevalent in the US/Europe (that is, assuming that the US/European prevalent strains are related)?

Mark_Chid

Yes, you are wrong. The anus is not designed for a penis and hence is far more likely to bleed. The virus finds it far easier to enter the bloodstream that way. In Africa one of the reasons hetewrosexual AIDS is so common is the idiotic notion that yound girls are 'safe', when of course they are far more likely to bleed during intercourse, which is the worst thing that can happen!

Mark_Chid

The major cause of heterosexual AIDS in the West however is male to male to female transmission.

i.e. Bisexual men - bisexuals are the most promiscuous group in society, partly because they have the widest choice of partners! Also MANY bisexual men hide their true sexuality from their female partners who, believing themselves in monogamous relationships do not insist on condoms.

Very few men in the West have contracted HIV from their female partners - even prostitution is relatively safe in the West (Since western prostitutes insist on condoms unlike in the 3rd world).

southernhybrid

Rectal tissue is thin and vascular allowing for easier absorbtion of the virus. It's the practice of anal sex, not homosexuality, that makes one more susceptible to transmitting HIV. HIV may be transmitted during vaginal intercourse but not as easily as by anal intercourse.

Mark_Chid

So there's no getting around the fact that, lacking vaginas, gay men are more likely to indulge in sexual activity that increases the risk of contracting the strain of HIV prevalent in the West.

Dr Rick

Homosexual sex is the only cause of homosexual HIV sexual transmission, and heterosexual sex is the only cause of heterosexual HIV sexual transmission.

Rick

Mark_Chid

You know exactly what I mean - the most common vector of AIDS into a heterosexual relationship in the West has been when the man isn't really heterosexual.

Dr Rick

I have no idea what you are getting at.

Rick