Posted on 07/31/2006 4:57:26 PM PDT by Graybeard58
(DB - one for you if you don't have it yet.)
Hep C is primarily spread by sexual contact just as AIDS is. Hep C wasn't a big thing until AIDS got going - gay bath houses and similar promiscuity, and then health care workers getting it from patients.
If a person doesn't want to get AIDS or Hep C, staying monogamously married to one person of the opposite sex and avoid blood of infected people will pretty much do it. I have three friends who got Hep C from transfusions. Who were the original blood donors and how did they get it?
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
I also dont see AARP complaining about the grants they get from The taxpayers
Freedom costs a buck or five
Defund AARP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Hep C is primarily spread by sexual contact just as AIDS is"
That is not true. It is mainly due to blood transfusions, needle sticks, mother child transmissions and IV drug use. Sexual contact has a low incidence of infection.
There are millions of people out there that have hep c and don't know it. Many contracted it through blood transfusions before testing of the blood was common. (1992)The symptoms take years to appear. My husband got it from a blood transfusion. He was a firefighter who was injured during a rescue. He even received blood from the FD bloodbank, not the public one. It is not an STD, and I don't know why you say that it is.
From the CDC
"Estimated 4.1 million (1.6%) Americans have been infected with HCV, of whom 3.2 million are chronically infected."
If the HIV research is beneficial for treatment of Hep C, I believe it makes sense to spend money on it.
I stand corrected. But I do have a question - what was the incidence of Hep C 20 to 30 years ago compared to current infection rate? Or better yet, what was the rate before "gay rights" made bath houses and promiscuity culturally acceptable?
When I was young I never heard of Hep C, and I wasn't the most well behaved on the block.
"It stems from irresponsible, unrestricted, and unprotected gay sex."
In the U.S., perhaps. However, all those straight women in Swaziland weren't infected by gay sex. That is what can happen if a government doesn't take it seriously.
PWN3D! It's left to your own interpretation. It's an awesome Freeper word.
It was previously called non-A non-B hepatitis, and was first diagnosed as such in 1975. (probably contracted several years prior) The virus wasn't discovered until 1989, and then it was renamed hepatitis C. It is not know exactly when the virus began infecting humans because it is asymptomatic in many cases, until the damage is already done. Sometimes a person can contract the virus and remain healthy for 25 years before becoming sick. The virus works by slowly damaging the liver, building scar tissue, which will eventually prevent the liver from functioning. Transplants can be used to prolong life, but the new liver will eventually become infected and damaged as well.
As for a connection to homosexual bath houses, I don't know of any. Obviously, because it is spread through bodily fluids and blood products, it can be spread through homosexual sex, like HIV. However, because blood products were not screened until 1992, most cases came from transfusions. It is sometimes mentioned with HIV because some are infected with both, and because they are both treated with antivirals. There is no known component of homosexual behavior in the history of the virus.
The new treatments developed using protocols similar to HIV, are effective in some, less so in others. The ongoing HIV research does provide much information to those treating Hep C. There is also a lot of Hep C research going on too. This is important because of the high rate of infection. Rates in Japan are substantially higher than in the US.
That is what I know about the disease history. It is a very different disease than HIV and isn't a reflection of sexual behavior.
Thanks for your comments. I just did a little googling and found these articles (in case you or anyone is interested).
http://www.hcvadvocate.org/hcsp/articles/Donovan-1.html
http://www.hepc.nhs.uk/information/faq.html
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/hepatitis/index.html
I still say that spending vast quantities of money on HIV when it is the easiest disease in the world to avoid is political pandering.
I have been out of town and away from my pc so have not seen that many to ping out this past week or so....
:-)
BTW, what does "PWN3D" mean? Pound? Pawned?
It is an "internet" phrase derived from online gaming used to signify defeat or being defeated; e.g. IF you are declared "PWN3D" then someone is declaring their supposed victory at the expense of your supposed defeat...
I would suggest that the disease is spread by those that do not take the possibility of transmission seriously REGARDLESS what the government may or may not do...
Of all the transmission methods I assert that male on male anal sex is the most probable transmission method AND the method not taken seriously enough by the "gay sex" is normal crowd as evidenced by your evoking the "straight women in Swaziland" canard...
Great graph. Thanx
If they'd just leave AIDS/HIV alone, the disease would cure itselfbut thought, "Wow, that's pretty radical and very, very un-PC," so I won't.
Thanks, I will check them out.
they spread it to innocents though. Babies, blood transfusions.
You owe me a new keyboard, LOL!
Amazing - I ask a little question and I get so many answers. Freepers know everything.
Next question - how is it pronounced?
(Probably a rhetorical question.)
A. A lot of what is called AIDS in Africa is actually other diseases since they often go by symptoms rather than testing.
B. If people in Africa (or elsewhere) abstained from anal sex, dry sex, and stayed monogamous, the AIDS problem would resolve itself soon.
C. Clinics often reuse needles - another really effective way to spread all manner of diseases.
If someone rejoins with "how can you expect people to abstain from those practices and be faithfully married"? My answer is I don't expect anything. But this world is run by inexorable natural law; and everyone has free will whether to abide by those natural laws or not. If someone chooses not to abide by natural law, s/he will suffer the natural consequences.
It's not possible nor advisable to try to bail everyone out who chooses to break natural law. Sometimes getting burned is a good way to learn not to stick one's hand into the fire. Sure taught me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.