AIDS: Not talked about so much anymore

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Good evening folks. Excuse me for being blunt but growing up in the late 80's and early 90's AIDS became a national and big issue. Funny, I don't hear much talk about it anymore. I've been doing tons of reading up on it also and some wonderful people such as Ryan White, and David Kirby and Arthur Ashe had it.
 
Originally Posted by Reddy45
It's too offensive to talk about it these days. Can't offend the feelings mafia.



LOL! I for one was shocked to hear about David Kirby as the place he was at in final days; they burned the ambulance. I guess ignorance was as strong as it is today
 
After recently seeing the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, I also thought about how AIDS has fallen out of the limelight of media attention. The college students I work with seem to be very enlightened about the risks of STD's and also excessive alcohol use. Good for them.
 
Originally Posted by Reddy45
It's too offensive to talk about it these days. Can't offend the feelings mafia.
I disagree, it's just that gender and race have more victim potential than just being diseased. I could see why you would make that claim, but I don't think AIDS is associated with homosexuality to the extent it was in the past. I think AIDS is more of an IV drug user's disease now.

I think when it first debuted it took everyone by surprise, it's basically a terminal STI/STD. Opinions regarding homosexuality were different back then which only added to the stigma. It's not really as common anymore as practices were adopted to reduce the transmission of blood borne diseases in medical settings. Remember in the 90s there were infected bag of blood? You don't really here than anymore although I think it was primarily hepatitis in those bags.

When I was a kid in the 90s, there were a lot of PSAs about safe sex that used AIDS as a main deterrent. That might explain why it is no longer as mainstream as it once was. Now-a-days I think it is HPV that is the new STI that all the cool kids have.

It will always be an issue in areas with high drug use, and Africa I think has always had a problem with it.

I'm currently working in a building that is near a needle exchange and there are needles everywhere in the stairwells and corridors, I'm quite frightened. 10 Dundas right in the heart of downtown Toronto.
 
There are a few reasons (both good and bad):

Med advancement now puts them "under control", as in, you usually can live a fairly long life as long as you suppress it enough to not turn HIV positive into AIDS. It is expensive but achievable in the developed world. I know a few "active" people who disregard its risk, thinking that it is just an inconvenience as long as you take med to keep the T cell count high (because they knew quite a few positive people who lived for 20 years of active life with no signs of health deterioration).

Teens are less social in person and have less "actions" than before (see the latest teen pregnancy numbers), they are living at home with mom and dad and they are less likely to have a bf gf relationship as the boomer / gen x. This is a across-the-world phenomenon starting in Japan; life is harder these days and people tend to stay as "virtual friends" instead.

Everything lost its novelty after a couple decades, now we are talking West Nile and HPV and bird flu and GMO causing cancer and what not. As soon as med patent expired and no money to be made, nobody care to publicize it anymore.

Still a huge problem in Africa but media don't usually mention much about Africa.
 
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As mentioned earlier, there's now medication that can control it. Before it was basically a death sentence so that's why it was mentioned all the time. Now they're actually pretty close to a vaccine for AIDS and current meds allow people to live a long time. Sorta like how you never really hear about all the people maimed and injured in car crashes, just the ones killed, but there's a lot more injured ones than ones that are killed.
 
I think its talked about less as the current drug cocktail has reduced the death from HIV/AIDs dramatically. But there is still funding and charities that raise money for it. The research for it also has helped other areas of treatments for viruses.
 
Max, LIFE is a terminal disease. Some things just speed up the process. The only thing that can truly bring you hope is something that can't be discussed here per the forum rules.

Adam, my most memorable HIV sufferer is Magic Johnson. I think it was 1991 he announced he had it, and here it is 28 years later and he's still going strong. There are so many things modern medicine still doesn't understand... the thing that really drives it home is the honesty of the actual profession: no matter how experienced and accomplished a doctor is in his field, they still acknowledge they are "practicing" medicine. I had a fairly routine foot surgery that didn't go as planned, and now it's more painful than it was before. If I had known that it would have ended up the way it did, I never would have had it done.

I think this topic has faded somewhat from the limelight because of the political landscape these days; no media outlet or politician wants to alienate their clientele by implying their life choices may lead to them contracting an incurable disease. So, the disease soldiers on and the politicians get re-elected because they turn their backs on sharing the inconvenient truth. Vices have consequences.
 
So, was Ryan White just too late to be helped as well as being a hemophiliac? I remember him first and the David Kirby and yes Magic Johnson is doing better. Thanks folks for the insight and info
 
Maybe because its an oil forum. People come here to get away from all this sort of stuff, you don't see cancer, heart disease or other medical issues discussed much either unless one of the posters has a problem. Bitog is really not the place for this or a lonely hearts club, I am sure there are other forums for that sort of thing.
 
HIV can be controlled to some extent with medication, but it is generally still a death sentence due to eventual weakening of the immune system. It had been fairly under control here, but the heroin epidemic, combined with sharing of dirty needles, has caused a comeback, along with Hepatitis C.
 
Interesting because the other day I was thinking about when Herpes was the hot to write about subject. The media certainly herds the flocks thoughts.I knew a few wonderful people die from aids years ago .It is as most diseases terrible
 
Lost a good family friend to this ugly disease. He ended up with HIV in the 1980's from a casual encounter with his female friend at the time, he fought it long and hard and died in the early 2000's.

He always said that he would would have never engaged in the "activity" had he known the risks fully. He spent the rest of his life speaking about he disease where possible and raising money for the cause.
 
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Originally Posted by double vanos
HEP C is the new thing I see on TV. Lots of ads here lately.


That's because there is a cure for it now.

There are ads for the alternate lifestyle folks, too. Forget what I was watching when I saw those ads for a medicine that you take along with using safe sex practices to help prevent STDs. Took me a little while to understand what they were advertising.
 
It's funny you mention it because I asked my wife the exact same question after watching Bohemian Rhapsody.
 
HIV is incredibly profitable to drug companies!!

There was a HIV vaccine in human trials set to be released to the market. Then they came out with truvada to take daily to reduce HIV in high risk populations. $1300 a month! Medicare and Medicaid pay it. The vaccine was hidden in the vault with the cure for cancer.

HIV positive patients meds cost around $20k a year. They average 3 hospitalizations a year. They get fungal bacterial and viral infections often. They get wounds and sores that take forever to heal.
All on the taxpayers dime because a HIV diagnosis gets you disability. It used to be considered a fatal disease and patients got the highest $$ pay.

HIV patients, mainly gay men have frequent unprotected sex with other HIV people since they already have it. But then they get multiple strains which are harder to treat.

I have had patients get it from heterosexual sex, blood transfusions, needle sticks to health care workers, IV use.

It is a terrible disease and continues to spread, however it doesn't get much news coverage anymore. It spread badly in China through blood transfusions in the past few years. It spreads in blood transfusions in the US also. It costs money to screen blood, just like a UOA. Thats why they have people fill out a questionaire. That is the main screen for HIV.

Also, HIV has brought back tuberculosis, which was just about gone. TB is spreading in the HIV community due to compromised immune system, and frequent antibiotic use and mutations.
 
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I am reading a lot of dangerous information here. HIV is a horrible disease, physically and mentally.
Yes there are new drugs that have enabled many to live FAIRLY normal lives. But they are very expensive and the side affects can damage organs.
You wanna live with diarreah(?) most days of your life? You wanna be shunned by many people?

A good friend of ours is "down to like 21 pills" a day. He visits schools to teach young people how to use condoms.
HIV has disabled him; he would like nothing more than to work 40 hours a week and pay his own way. That ain't gonna happen.

The answer is education. Right now it is the only answer.
 
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