Posted on 12/05/2004 1:24:37 AM PST by OnlyinAmerica
950,000 Americans infected with HIV By DANIEL YEE Associated Press
ATLANTA - Nearly a million Americans now have the AIDS virus and the nation's ability to keep others from becoming infected still lags despite a government pledge four years ago to "break the back" of the AIDS epidemic by 2005.
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The campaign, launched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in February 2001, intended to cut in half the estimated 40,000 new HIV infections that have occurred every year since the 1990s.
However, the rate of new cases remains about the same, according to CDC data released Wednesday. In Harris County, statistics indicate the rate has declined slightly in the last three years. The county has reported more than 22,000 AIDS cases since 1981.
In 2001, the CDC's campaign focused on outwardly healthy people who did not realize they had HIV — about one-fourth of those infected.
But the agency found just targeting those people was not enough.
So last year, the CDC shifted gears, focusing on counseling those who knew they had HIV to get them not to spread the virus.
Those who don't know they ARE HIV+ don't listen or concern themselves with the problem They think that, like we all do, that they are immortal and aren't subject to the risks involved regarding infection...
Unfortunately, quarantine or house arrest is the only true method to stop the spread of such a disease. And THAT ain't gonna happen..
PC liberals think that everyone should have as much sex as they want regardless of any consequences.
PC is idiocy. And liberals are idiots!
Hmmmm. Let me think. Who was president four years ago? This must be his fault.
BTW, in preventing the spread of AIDS, zippers are far more effective than condoms.
The Center for Disease Control is merely trying to do just that. But human nature (e.g. "NOT ME") will continue to be fallible..
The serological tests for HIV have not (to date) been calibrated against an isolate of the HIV virus. Without this "gold-standard calibration" the tests have no business being used in epidemiology or diagnosis, as we have no idea what the false posititive rate (or "specificity") is. And a fp rate of 1 in 100, 000 would still mean many more false cases than true ones.
Isn't it funny how people can be walking around healthy without "realising" they have an apparently deadly virus? This is an epidemic by diagnosis - a false test panics healthy patients into taking a poisonous cure (Used to be AZT, now Cathepsin-D inhibitors) and then they go into physical decline. There have been thousands upon thousands of "AIDs" deaths in the USA, and 90% of them died of liver failure!
Everyone has AIDS!
AIDS AIDS AIDS!
AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS!
Everyone has AIDS!
And so this is the end of our story
And everyone is dead from AIDS
It took from me my best friend
My only true pal
My only bright star (he died of AIDS)
Well I'm gonna march on Washington
Lead the fight and charge the brigades
There's a hero inside of all of us
I'll make them see everyone has AIDS
My father (AIDS!)
My sister (AIDS!)
My uncle and my cousin and her best friend (AIDS AIDS AIDS!)
The gays and the straights
And the white and the spades
Everyone has AIDS!
My grandma and my dog 'ol blue (AIDS AIDS AIDS)
The pope has got it and so do you (AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS)
C'mon everybody we got quilting to do (AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS)
We gotta break down these baricades, everyone has
AIDS! x 20
I'll never understand this stuff. If the fudge packers and dope needle suckers would curtail their behavior, then the problem goes away. It's called 'cause and effect.' Duh. This HIV/AIDS BS is beyond me.
Saw a movie a few years ago with Michael J Fox. He failed to score with a girl. He walked away, looked at his hand and asked, "So what are you doing tonight?" Funny as hell.
http://crossword.uniontrib.com/news/health/20041201-1427-aids-u.s.cases.html
Despite government campaign, HIV infection rates unchanged in U.S., as cases near 1 million
By Daniel Yee
ASSOCIATED PRESS
2:27 p.m. December 1, 2004
ATLANTA – Nearly a million Americans now have the AIDS virus and the nation's ability to keep others from becoming infected still lags despite a government pledge four years ago to "break the back" of the AIDS epidemic by 2005.
The campaign, launched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in February 2001, intended to cut in half the estimated 40,000 new HIV infections that have occurred every year since the 1990s. .
However, the rate of new cases remains about the same, according to CDC data released Wednesday as part of the federal health agency's commemoration of World AIDS Day. .
"We have a ways to go before we reach the mark of reducing new infections by half in the United States," said Dr. Ronald Valdiserri, the director of the CDC HIV and AIDS prevention program. He called the country's HIV infection rate "relatively stable." .
"Clearly we want to continue, and are continuing, to fund programs to reach out to people who are high-risk and are not infected," he added. .
In 2001, the CDC's campaign focused on outwardly healthy people who did not realize they had HIV – about one-fourth of those infected. Officials then said targeting them was key, because if they knew they were infected, they would be more likely to take steps not to spread the virus. .
Such an effort "could possibly break the back of the epidemic in the United States," the CDC's Dr. Robert Janssen said then. .
But the agency found that just targeting people who didn't know they had the AIDS virus was not enough. So last year, the CDC shifted gears, focusing on counseling those who knew they had HIV in an attempt to get them not to spread the virus. .
Yet some advocacy groups say that effort fails to focus on drug users, or very sexually active young men, which advocacy groups say is key in preventing new infections. .
"It just doesn't seem like much is really happening," said Terje Anderson, executive director of the Washington-based National Association of People Living With AIDS. "There just is a lack of imagination or spark in terms of the kinds of programs they support. I think they are politically afraid." .
The CDC believes up to 950,000 people in the United States are infected with HIV and up to 280,000 of them don't know it, Valdiserri said. .
The rate of HIV diagnoses in the United States increased slightly – by 1 percent – between 2000 and 2003, from 19.5 people per 100,000 population to 19.7 per 100,000 in the 32 states surveyed by the CDC. .
Advocacy groups blame a lack of federal money for part of the failure to make a dent in the HIV rate. .
"The reality is, to cut the number of infections, we need to do more – you can't always do more with less. We desperately need more resources," Anderson said. .
When the AIDS epidemic began to unfold in the 1980s, U.S. infections grew quickly. Although infections peaked late in that decade, they have remained level since the mid-1990s. Drug therapies have enabled many infected with HIV to live relatively normal lives, but more than 18,000 Americans died of AIDS in 2003, according to the latest data available. .
.
Problem: when I read the CDC data, I see that about 1 million people in the US have been infected with HIV since we discovered this beastie in the 80's -- of those people, *some* have developed AIDS, and some haven't -- and of those who have developed AIDS, 500,000 have died.
So, if I am reading the data correctly, as of *right now* about 500,000 Americans are HIV positive. About 40% of them have AIDS. The fastest growing, and largest, HIV infection groups are homosexual men (45%) and blacks (51%).
There are about 30-35,000 new HIV cases per year. This has been the status quo for some time now.
So the only real "emergency" is a gradual focus away from the AIDS/HIV research industry, into areas of more productive & promising endeavors, as well as the ever-present "emergency" in newsrooms everywhere, the need to sell the crisis-de-jour, and thereby sell advertisements.
While it is most unfortunate that some people persist in behaviors that expose them to deadly diseases, I don't see why their failure to exercise prudent judgement, as well as the consequences for their actions, should be a burden to me and my family.
"The CDC believes up to 950,000 people in the United States are infected with HIV"
Many of those "are infected" are now dead. About 500,000 or so. If I've read the tables correctly, which I don't believe any AIDS reporters do. But then again, they didn't major in mathematics in college -- they majored in selling advertisement space in newspapers, on television, magazines, and so forth.
Yeah, but at least he knows where his hand has been...
So Sorry 0.4 percent.
Without question there is an agenda being stoked here.
The fact is that information about HIV-AIDS has been out in public view for all to see since the late 1980's.
The root of this disease is largely behavioral. No ammount of "clean needles:, or "condoms" is going to be effective against it.
"Advocacy groups blame a lack of federal money for part of the failure to make a dent in the HIV rate."
Like any special interest group, it's all about giving them more of taxpayers money, and absolutely nothing about personal responsibility.
Me? I don't hang out with homosexuals, or druggies, and as you stated in your post # 13, "I don't see why their failure to exercise prudent judgement, as well as the consequences for their actions, should be a burden to me and my family."
HIV/AIDS is caused by known behavior and anyone who gets it is responsible himself for it. There's noone who's not engaged in such behavior (other than hemophiliacs) who innocently contract this disease. I'm sick of being told to feel sorry for the 'victims' of this. . . they're not victims; they're perpetrators. I've heard of no hemophiliacs recently so maybe the blood supply no longer carries the disease.
If noone behaved dangerously starting today, the numbers would fall to zero eventually as current diseased eventually die.
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