Just from reading the title alone, many of you like thousands of others out there may consider these two characteristics to be a major contribution in spreading HIV. I will admit, I myself think "Of course prostitution plays a major part! These women are having unprotected sex with people they don't even know!" Thus meaning, they are unknowingly contracting HIV and unknowingly spreading it onto the next. However, in this article that I found published by Robert Root-Bernstein in the Wall Street Journal in 1993 called "Rethinking AIDS", he actually refutes this theory completely and logically.
While most people in the 1980's were concerned that these people would become the "vectors" that would spread HIV to the general heterosexual population, Bernstein finds that only 10-15% of female prostitutes that were found to be infected almost always received it through intravenous drug use. Cases of "sexually acquired HIV is nearly unknown."
According to this article as well, in 1984, nearly 90% or about 15,000 hemophiliacs were infected with HIV. The average time for HIV to convert AIDS is about ten years. From this data, people would naturally conclude that all are infected or dead from the virus. However, data provides that only 1,500 of those 15,000 were actually recorded as passing onto the AIDS stage.
Overall, the main point to be reached is that HIV/AIDS does not pick out these certain characteristics for attack. Rather, those that do get infected (i.e blood transfusion, prostitutes) already have some sort of immunodeficiency. For example, those drug using prostitutes use drugs that suppress and throw their immune system out of whack. Those recipients of blood transfusions need them because their immune system is already defective. The blood itself is already suppressing the immune system, so it comes as no surprise that the larger the transfusion, the larger the immune suppression. In addition, the blood they receive could be infected with other viruses which only adds to the damage. Many people receive blood post surgery. Before this, they were under several antibiotics and opiates which all suppress the immune system making a person more susceptible.
Bernstein's main purpose of this article is to break through some of the barriers and stigmas thought by most of society by disproving stereotypes and replacing it with concrete statistics and medical logic.
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This was very interesting. Have you been able to find more recent data that confirms this theory? 1984 is a long time ago and things may have changed since them. Might be a good idea to see what the new statistics say.
ReplyDeleteI want to see you general blog also, Paige. Did You Know is to be a part of that blog, not a separate blog. So from now on please make it one blog. Use different color fonts to make the title so it stands out.
View some of the other blogs to see what students are doing. All blog addresses have been posted to the blog discussion topic. Remember to use pictures, videos and web links to enhance your material.
Ohh Ok, I think I understand now. When I write my weekly blog on my progress, I simply change the font within the same blog and enter them as one? Other topics are seperate.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great post. A couple of years ago, I came across some similar information as I decided that I needed to know more about something so prevalent. This article shows an obscure beginning for HIV/AIDS which is a major reason to why many have come up with their own ideas and conspiracies as to how and why this epidemic came to be.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed how you tied all the information together at the end of your post and came back to a central idea.
I am in no way saying I fully believe them, but they sure do make you think and want to further explore the real truth (if there is one).
This piece is really interesting. I did my blog on HIV and blood transfusions and there is definitely a big role in all. I think that with people making up different things about HIV is dangerous because it is not always true and it can mess up our thoughts.
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