Posted on 06/13/2005 9:24:57 PM PDT by Graybeard58
ATLANTA -- The United States has reached an AIDS milestone, but not the one the government intended.
This was to be the year that federal health officials slashed the country's annual rate of 40,000 new HIV infections in half. Instead, the government said Monday the infection rate has remained the same and that for the first time since the height of the epidemic in the 1980s there are 1 million Americans living with HIV.
In part, it's a testament to the powerful medicines keeping so many people alive. After nearly a quarter-century of battling AIDS, much more is known about the disease than ever before -- and how to treat it.
But U.S. health officials face problems similar to the early days of the epidemic, including a new generation of Americans who engage in risky, unprotected sex and the inability of a government to curb the spread of the virus.
"In the earlier days of the AIDS epidemic, we didn't know how to get AIDS under control. I think now we do, but we're watching a textbook case of not implementing a good plan," said Julie Davids, spokeswoman for the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project.
Advocacy groups like Davids' say there's not enough federal money behind public awareness campaigns and other prevention programs. They accuse the government of politically motivated efforts that emphasize abstinence over condom use.
Health officials say HIV and sexually transmitted diseases have recently spread through outbreaks in major cities as many gay and bisexual men have let down their guard after enduring years of safe-sex messages. The new estimates indicate that, as in recent years, blacks still account for a disproportionately high share of the cases -- about 47 percent.
"We have not halved the rates of new infections. But we do think we are making progress," said Dr. Ronald Valdiserri, deputy director of the CDC's National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention as the National HIV Prevention Conference got under way.
It was Dr. Robert Janssen of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who announced a campaign in 2001 to "break the back" of the epidemic by reducing the rate of new HIV infections to 20,000 a year by 2005.
Today experts believe the government's campaign was such a failure that instead of chopping in half the number of new HIV infections, it has increased to 60,000 new cases per year.
"The U.S. has had a clear failure in HIV prevention -- I think the increase in prevalence is a reflection of that, of the poor job we do in HIV prevention," said Dr. Carlos del Rio of Emory University.
But the government says what the country faces now is not failure but a challenge. Having more than 1 million Americans living with HIV means that more people are living longer.
To Valdiserri, that means working with those who have HIV to make sure they know not to pass the virus to others. The CDC also wants to focus on the nearly 300,000 people who have the virus but don't know it.
More than a quarter of the people living with HIV have not been diagnosed, the CDC estimated, and some apparently don't want to know. Valdiserri noted that nearly a third of those who tested positive at CDC-sponsored sites around the country did not return for the test results.
An upcoming scientific paper from CDC officials says the majority of new infections have been transmitted by those with HIV who don't know they are infected, Valdiserri said.
Estimating the number of Americans with HIV has always been a difficult task for health officials, but this year's figures are believed to be the most accurate ever thanks to wider case reporting.
In the 1990s, the CDC and other agencies generally agreed that between 600,000 and 900,000 people had the virus, according to the University of California-San Francisco's Center for HIV Information. The number in the mid-1980s was probably around 1.2 million, experts believe.
The latest numbers, from 2003, indicate gay and bisexual men make up 45 percent of those living with HIV. The racial breakdown indicates 58 per 100,000 in the black population, 10 per 100,000 Hispanics, 6 per 100,000 whites, 8 per 100,000 American Indian/Alaska native population, and 4 per 100,000 Asian/Pacific Islanders.
The CDC also warned those demographics may soon change because heterosexual blacks, women and others infected after having high-risk sex (such as with someone with HIV, an injection-drug user or a man who has sex with other men) now account for a larger proportion of those living with HIV than those who are living with full-blown AIDS.
"We're seeing more infections, that's the bad news. But the good news is many of us are living longer," said Terje Anderson, who was diagnosed with HIV eight years ago and AIDS four years ago. He now serves as executive director of the National Association of People Living with AIDS.
"It just points out how far we still have to go in really dealing effectively with this in this country. Maybe passing the million mark will drive home that this thing is getting bigger and it's not going away."
It's their RIGHT to do so!
It's right there in the Constitution somewhere.
Gee, there are more HIV/AIDS cases than there are U.S. casualties in Iraq. How about that.
"Don't ask, don't tell."
We knew then too. Nothing's changed. The solution is the same now as it was then.
This crap has me talking to myself. I'd better go to bed.
It's probably all that safe oral sex the liberals keep pushing on our kids. They don't tell the children the truth that the HIV virus goes right through the pores of a condom.
Was abstinence and/or monogamy mentioned as a viable solution? I doubt it. That's no fun. I guess they prefer AIDs.
There's plenty of info available. The only failures in prevention are the people who know the risks and still don't give a flying squirrel.
==In part, it's a testament to the powerful medicines keeping so many people alive.
If you want to know what the US government isn't telling you about the real cause of AIDS:
http://www.duesberg.com/papers/chemical-bases.html
How the generals in the War on AIDS duped Americans into believing HIV causes AIDS:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1414748/posts
To learn about the social engineering/socialized medicine goals behind "The War on AIDS" see the following:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1395003/posts
The good news is that AIDS is gradually eliminating that dirty little sub-culture which enjoys special rights and status in our country. The bad news is that you and I pay the cost of AIDS research and medicines with our tax dollars.
Makes one wonder, If it wasn't a "protected disease/lifestyle" maybe it might be controlable, if not nearly totaly preventable.
====In part, it's a testament to the powerful medicines keeping so many people alive.
These so-called powerful medicines kill innocent children!
http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data/pdazt.htm
And they are still being used in conjunction with other toxic drugs!:
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infection
Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)
Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is the combination of several antiretroviral medications used to slow the rate at which HIV makes copies of itself (multiplies) in the body. A combination of three or more antiretroviral medications is more effective than using just one medication (monotherapy) in the treatment of HIV.
The use of three or more antiretroviral medications is currently the standard treatment for HIV infection, sometimes referred to as an anti-HIV "cocktail." So far, this treatment offers the best chance of preventing HIV from multiplying, which allows your immune system to stay healthy. The goal of antiretroviral therapy is to reduce the amount of virus in your body (viral load) to a level that can no longer be detected with current blood tests.
Antiretroviral medications that are often used to treat HIV include:
Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), also called nucleoside analogs, such as zidovudine (ZDV, formerly AZT) and stavudine (d4T). These medications are often combined for best results.
Nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), such as efavirenz, nevirapine, or delavirdine mesylate.
Nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors, such as tenofovir.
Protease inhibitors (PIs), such as saquinavir mesylate, ritonavir, indinavir sulfate, nelfinavir mesylate, amprenavir, or lopinavir/ritonavir.
Fusion inhibitors, such as enfuvirtide. This is a new class of drugs for treating HIV.
Link:
http://aolsvc.health.webmd.aol.com/hw/health_guide_atoz/tm6421.asp?navbar=hw151411
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National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention Divisions of HIV/AIDS Prevention |
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention Divisions of HIV/AIDS Prevention Contact Us |
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Or gerbil, as the case may be.
Cheers!
I might come out here saying it's all hollywood but you are hurting as am I.The answers you know complement the signs we've both seen.Being a woman you have invested much thought in little innocent ones who are supposed to reach future.
HIV today and something awaiting us tomorrow.
Closer to shore as if we don't know.Info is not the answer. The continual beat of sexuality on children is something we should be concerned with;On PBS/ Lions, Between the lions,with Dr, Ruthshimer talking to little kids about anything? Sirius prod-uctions.There's no end to this madness the kid shows are like entrees to someone else's career on SNL and they teach this to Kids?
Maybe they will find a cure for AIDS in the stem cell research that Arnold pushed for.
I might come out here saying it's all hollywood but you are hurting as am I.The answers you know complement the signs we've both seen.Being a woman you have invested much thought in little innocent ones who are supposed to reach future.
HIV today and something awaiting us tomorrow.
Closer to shore as if we don't know.Info is not the answer. The continual beat of sexuality on children is something we should be concerned with;On PBS/ Lions, Between the lions,with Dr, Ruthshimer talking to little kids about anything? Sirius prod-uctions.There's no end to this madness the kid shows are like entrees to someone else's career on SNL and they teach this to Kids?
Early ,before they go to school,a nice parady of history,dumass puppet suits and sets for very young with dialogue quite mature.Certainly quotes from whatever they ridicule but mixed with a sketch they were supposed to do for edu' purpose.
>>
They don't tell the children the truth that the HIV virus goes right through the pores of a condom.
<<
HOLY CRAP!?!
I gotta stop dating demoRATS.
Homosexual Agenda Ping.
I WASN'T going to ping another article out, but I will likely be very busy tomorrow and can't let this one slip by.
Amazing tripe. Very simpe solution - chastity until marriage, fidelity within marriage. Ta da! Look at Uganda, turned AIDS infections around.
As far as "men having sex with men" - AIDS isn't the only horrible illness they give each other. And no one is born "gay".
Freepmail me if you want on/off this pinglist.
SIT DOWN, KEEP YOUR MOUTH CLOSED AND DONT SHOOT UP.
Exactly. But, the gays persist in trying to ram their "normalcy" down the throats (now, there's an ugly thought) of "straight" America. They can't have it both ways, although it seems that's what the bisexual deviants want...
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