How AIDS in Africa Was Overstated

Washington Post ^ | Thursday, April 6, 2006 | Craig Timberg

[ChessExpert]

The rate of HIV infection among Rwandans ages 15 to 49 is 3 percent, ... The new data suggest the rate never reached the 30 percent estimated by some early researchers, nor the nearly 13 percent given by the United Nations in 1998. ... They were looking to generate big bucks." ... the AIDS agency produced reports that increasingly were subject to political calculations, with the emphasis on raising awareness and money.

[ChessExpert]

The short answer to the title question seems to be: They lied.

[Mr. Brightside]

Are these the same people who tell us that homosexuals make up 1-15 percent of the population?

[Mr. Brightside]

CORRECTION:

Are these the same people who tell us that homosexuals make up 10-15 percent of the population?

[A Longer Name]

So. What else they told us is not true?

[FormerLib]

This is going to anger the pro-homo cheerleaders as they’ve been relying on the heterosexual AIDS rate in Africa as a smokescreen for how homosexual acts lead to disease and death.

[napscoordinator]

Who cares if they lied. This is outstanding news. I am thrilled that these people won’t be dying at horrible stats.

[PeterPrinciple]

I was in Uganda. One project was planting amaranth grain which is highly nutritious. It “cured” some people with aids. Most of the problems were nuritional and malaria related but there was no money for this, only aids.

[Fishrrman]

They were looking to generate big bucks." ... the AIDS agency produced reports that increasingly were subject to political calculations, with the emphasis on raising awareness and money.

Could this be similar to the way the "global warming industry" is trying to generate "awareness", so that THEY can raise "big bucks"????

- John

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Like all con artists, they’ve already moved on. This time, it’s Global Warming.

[taxed2death]

....been sayin this for years... I’m not a doc.

Aids in Africa was measured by low T cells.

If ya got a honkin’ cold... with the gurglin’ blobs.... and ya go to the gym for a healthy workout and THEN get tested.....guess what?

You’ve got AIDS.

Just another scam foisted amongst taxpayers....and the US goobermint got played too.

Go figure.

[icwhatudo]

You and many many others at FR called this one long long ago. Those people are not dumb, just like every problem that today is blamed on Global Warming, every sickness in Africa was blamed on Aids because thats what was getting the ca$h.

[dfwgator]

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! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS!
AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS!
AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS!

[Shermy]

“So. What else they told us is not true?”

There was a famine in Somalia in 1992.

The number of Palestinian refugees.

And the biggest lie of all time from the UN,

The million dead babies in Iraq under sanctions.

There was no increase -

They used phoney stats, phoney models, didn’t account for many Iraqis leaving Iraq, etc.

That one is still a cry to war for AQ, and there fatwas saying they are permitted to kill millions of Americans.

[Shermy]

Yeah, “climate change” too.

The IPCC is a scientific fraud.

[InterceptPoint]

I was in Uganda. One project was planting amaranth grain which is highly nutritious. It “cured” some people with aids. Most of the problems were nuritional and malaria related but there was no money for this, only aids.

"Cured" is exactly the right term. The nice thing about a "made up disease" is that you can make up a "cure". I absolutely agree that malaria and malnutrition are the real "AIDS" in Africa.

[rusty millet]

In Kenya, doctors are recommending pearl millet for their AIDS patients.

Note: conflict of interest disclaimer.

[3catsanadog]

I read somewhere else (and can't remember where) that things like colds and flu were misdiagnosed as AIDS because of lack of proper testing methods in many places in Africa.

And now I suspect the misdiagnoses were also a way to get more money.

Ok, then, can we stop sending money for this overblown problem to Africa now?

[elc]

"Made up disease" might be a bit of a stretch.

Further into the article you get this:

Yet the disease is devastating southern Africa, according to the data. It is in that region alone -- in countries including South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland and Zimbabwe -- that an AIDS Belt exists, the researchers say.

"What we know now more than ever is southern Africa is the absolute epicenter," said David Wilson, a senior AIDS analyst for the World Bank, speaking from Washington.

In the West African country of Ghana, for example, the overall infection rate for people ages 15 to 49 is 2.2 percent. But in Botswana, the national infection rate among the same age group is 34.9 percent. And in the city of Francistown, 45 percent of men and 69 percent of women ages 30 to 34 are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

[adorno]

Are these the same people who tell us that homosexuals make up 10-15 percent of the population?

No doubt. And no doubt these are the same people that keep telling us about the huge poverty rate in the U.S. and also about the large number of people that have no medical insurance.

Discovering problems or making them up if there aren't any, bring those people power.

[Mr. Brightside]

Good thing we have more honest people taking the census counts in the inner cities. /s

[Lorianne]

Same for malaria (which kills far more people per year than AIDS) and other water-born diseases. Money for clean water programs is miniscule compared to money spent on AIDS related causes.

Ditto nourishment programs for young women, pregnant women and children. The biggest turn-around in health can be had in these areas ... instead we fund abortion.

[windcliff]

lol

[Always Right]

They were looking to generate big bucks.

It did and Bush and Clinton were two of the top suckers for it.

[taxesareforever]

Years down the road we’ll also get the same answer on global warming. They lied.

[ChessExpert]

I was in Uganda. One project was planting amaranth grain which is highly nutritious. It “cured” some people with aids. Most of the problems were nuritional and malaria related but there was no money for this, only aids.

Thanks for your report.

I think many people involved mean to help. But a critical number of them buy into the leftist principle that the (theoretical) end justifies the means. The actual end result is a misdiagnosis, and little to no real help. Future requests, or demands, for help will face more opposition.

What thinking leads liberals astray? Many have written on this topic. Here’s another formulation. It is O.K. to exaggerate, or even lie, if it brings in $. Rich people have too much anyway. It is good for government to take it away. Government and money are all powerful when harnessed to a good cause. How many commandments have been violated? Screwtape and Wormwood were senior and junior devils in Hell’s bureaucracy (in The Screwtape Letters). I can imagine a dialog on the pleasure of misleading humans and perverting good instincts, such as charity.

[ChessExpert]

Tom Bethell (Politically Incorrect Guide to Science) and Michael Fumento ( http://fumento.com/suaids.html ) have written on AIDs and may have said this.

[Quick or Dead]

How did this sanity make it into the Washington Compost?

[InterceptPoint]

"Made up disease" might be a bit of a stretch.

OK. AIDS is real in terms of the original definition of AIDS as a collection of ailments that are associated with a failing immune system.

The problem is that this is not the definition that is actually used. The real practical definition is: the detection of antibodies of the HIV virus in your body. Note that it is the antibodies of HIV not the virus itself that is detected.

The problem we have here is that an HIV positive test doesn't mean that you are going to get AIDS despite the fact that there is a "scientific consensus" that you will. I have challenged the HIV=AIDS community for over 15 years to show me the proof that HIV has anything to do with AIDS and I'm still waiting. There is no definitive article in a reputable scientific journal that they can point to.

But worse, the criteria for being HIV positive in Africa is different than the one that applies in say San Francisco. Why is that so? I think I know the answer: the San Francisco test doesn't yield enough victims.

So I will stand by my "made up disease" comment.

[plenipotentiary]

“It did and Bush and Clinton were two of the top suckers for it.”

But it was Reagans Health Secretary who brought it to life.

(Don’t worry, I like Reagan, and I’ve got full body armour on)

[ChessExpert]

“But worse, the criteria for being HIV positive in Africa is different than the one that applies in say San Francisco. Why is that so? I think I know the answer: the San Francisco test doesn’t yield enough victims.”

As I understand it, c/o Tom Bethell’s the Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, the San Francisco (US) HIV positive test was considered impractical or too expensive for field use in many African countries. So proxy tests were devised. These turned out to be a tad liberal in their outcome.

[Mike Darancette]

The new data suggest the rate never reached the 30 percent estimated by some early researchers, nor the nearly 13 percent given by the United Nations in 1998. ... They were looking to generate big bucks.

Now it's on to global warming.