An AIDS-free generation

Chicago Tribune ^ | November 27, 2011 | David Ernesto Munar

[mdittmar]

Running toward a dream of a lifetime

When I tested positive for HIV in 1994, I never would have imagined an AIDS-free generation to be possible in my lifetime.

I also didn't think I would live past 35.And yet, I am 42 years old today and we have arrived at the precipice of that dream. With recent medical advances, and the promise of more soon to come, an AIDS-free generation is possible. Achieving this goal, as eloquently outlined by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this month, would save millions of American dollars and countless lives around the world.

The question is whether we have the political and social will to make it a reality.

No one is talking about what the deficit-reduction talks or the attempts to dismantle health care reform mean for stopping AIDS in this country. Now is the time for that conversation. Cutting funding for HIV/AIDS services, treatment and research would be devastating to our progress in defeating this 30-year-old epidemic.

And the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act is necessary to provide access to treatment for the thousands in our country who are on waiting lists because they cannot afford life-saving medications.

[The Bishop]

An Aids free generation has always been possible. No medical advances were actually necessary beyond cleansing blood supply lines. Stop deviant, immoral and unnatural sexual copulation and end intraveneous drug use and the Aids epidemic would have receded as quickly as it began.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks mdittmar.

Achieving this goal, as eloquently outlined by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this month... No one is talking about what the deficit-reduction talks or the attempts to dismantle health care reform mean for stopping AIDS... Cutting funding for HIV/AIDS services, treatment and research would be devastating to our progress in defeating this 30-year-old epidemic. And the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act is necessary to provide access to treatment for the thousands in our country who are on waiting lists because they cannot afford life-saving medications.

Astroturf *and* partisan media shill in one!

[Bigg Red]

An Aids free generation has always been possible. No medical advances were actually necessary beyond cleansing blood supply lines. Stop deviant, immoral and unnatural sexual copulation and end intraveneous drug use and the Aids epidemic would have receded as quickly as it began.

&&&
Bingo!

[Graybeard58]

with the exception of bad blood transfusions it's 100% preventable.

We know where that "bad blood" came from, same with shared needles, women with AIDS and babies born with AIDS. Go back far enough in the story and you'll find a queer man humping another queer man.

[napscoordinator]

Never got a driver’s license? Never sent a letter? The federal government has a hand in everything we do. You have been definitely supported by the federal government one way or another. We all have.

[FormerLib]

You have been definitely supported by the federal government one way or another. We all have.

Only if the cost of what you receive from the federal government exceeds what you pay TO the federal government, otherwise you are supporting the federal government.

[Jack Hammer]

“...we have arrived at the precipice...”

Yes, indeed we have; however, not in the sense related by the author of this nonsense.

[napscoordinator]

Actually that is a great point. I didn’t think of it that way, but that is so true. Gosh, I guess I don’t take support from the government either. Interesting. Probably most FREEPERS don’t.

[newzjunkey]

Billions has been spent on HIV research for the benefit of a miniscule portion of the population

Uh... No. Those billions go into learning in-depth about viral disease and the complexities of immunity. That knowledge gained ultimately benefits everyone.

[ColdSteelTalon]

I don't take infected loads of you know what up the you know where.

Weeeeeellllll allrighty then... LOL

[Lancey Howard]

“...we have arrived at the precipice...”

Or, as the author would say if he was reading his own tripe aloud, "prethipith".

[Lion Den Dan]

Ernesto, aren’t you dead yet?

[Secret Agent Man]

I know. But obviously that’s not the (common sense) solution the world is going to come to. I was just pointing out the futility of trying to engineer a “cure” for a virus that mutates and already has a huge bunch of different strains. Treatment would be better off boosting immune systems to the point they can destroy viruses or disable their abilities to replicate.

[Darren McCarty]

LOL. It's a reference to the late great Sam Kinison. He got ripped by gays for making a bunch of jokes. One of the complaints was that they were medically incorrect. In response, he told jokes that were "medically correct."

"It's not like you're just going to be sitting on the toilet and be like 'OW OW OWWWWWWWW! I just got SHOT up the (Censored) with an INFECTED load of (censored) Who's the SMARTASS??!?" You basically got to make an appointment for that, folks...it's not just gonna f'n happen."

[Evergolightly]

Clearly delusional, why won’t people recognize homosexuality is a mental disorder caused by chemical imbalances in the brain.

We could actually help these sick individuals before they destroyed themselves if we could get them into camps for reeducation and therapy for their real affliction.

[Joe 6-pack]

Andrew Dice Clay also had some pretty un-PC homosexual/AIDS routines. He basically had his career shut down. I wonder how Kinison’s career would have progressed had he survived...

[FormerLib]

There’s a difference between “taking support from” and “being supported by.”

[conservativguy99]

Give up with your posts, the luddites will have you banned before you know it.

[wolf78]

This epidemic could’ve been contained with proper medical procedure - namely, quarantine of the infected.

With all due respect, this is a pipe dream / an urban legend.

a.) For most patients the latency period from primary infection to progression to AIDS is anywhere between ten weeks and ten years. So if you quarantine patients that become sick NOW, you still have plenty of infected that won't become symptomatic for years.

b.) Other than popular belief, HIV in the US didn't have a single point of origin. Even if you quarantined all San Francisco in the 1980s, the virus would still be present, as it had already entered the population through the Carribean.

So you would have to use military force to test EVERYONE, i.e. 250 million Americans. And then you would still have had the problem of early generation tests with a diagnostic gap of a few weeks from date of infection.