Stephen quoted:
>people in Uganda infected with HIV. Over 500,000 people are reported to
>have died from AIDS since 1982. ... [The problem is that the HIV/AIDS
>drug cocktails are so expensive that Third World countries can't afford
>them and the drugs don't stop the patients dying anyway. Such countries
>have urgent conventional public health problems that also desperately
>need funding and it may well be that they will just stop using the drugs, as
>some like Burma are starting to do. Over time and properly evaluated (i.e.
>not by those with an axe to grind) that would provide a test of the claim
>that HIV causes AIDS and also whether the drug cocktails make any
>worthwhile difference.]
>
>http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000310/sc/aids_italy_1.html Yahoo!
>... March 10 ... Italy Doctors Find Antibody AIDS Promise By Jude
>Webber ROME (Reuters) - An antibody that some people produce
>naturally in their bodies appears to "bar the door" to AIDS
>"These results contribute to clarifying the phenomenon of immunologic
>resistance to HIV ... [Acknowledging that having HIV antibodies (ie. being
>HIV positive) is not necessarily the same thing as being at risk of
>contracting any of the various diseases in the syndrome known as AIDS.
>One wonders therefore how many HIV positive patients would never have
>gone on to develop AIDS, but led a life of nauseous misery and were
>eventually killed by the toxic drug cocktails?]
I went to the website you provided which tries to make a case that HIV does
not lead to AIDS and the anti-AIDS drugs aren't good for you, etc. It gave
me the major creeps. It's like I was looking into the face of pure evil.
I'm still thinking about this and trying to find more information--some
survival studies before and after drugs would be nice. Your horror over the
drugs used to combat AIDS doesn't cut it. Bad diseases sometimes call for
very bad and dangerous drugs and medical procedures. Compared to death,
most people find it acceptable. You obviously don't recall that huge
pressure from the gay community went into the development of those drugs. A
large number of gays are white European males and not used to being treated
as second class citizens. They had considerable power, wealth and influence
and used it to get research funding and eventual approval for these drugs.
It's not a surprise that some people who become HIV positive don't get
AIDS. Any evolutionary biologist would tell you that such a huge population
is going to have a lot of genetic varation and some people will be
naturally resistant.
Education and prevention are bringing the HIV infection rate down. Drugs
are keeping people alive longer--if not, show me some before and after
longevity numbers. I want to see them. Otherwise, knock it off. You're
giving me the creeps.
Susan
----------
For if there is a sin against life, it consists not so much in despairing
of life as in hoping for another and in eluding the implacable grandeur of
this one.
--Albert Camus
http://www.telepath.com/susanb/
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