AIDS - What they don't teach us at school.

[Micah]

Firstly I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Micah and I'm 16. Recently at school we have been doing sex ed, but i feel there is something they aren't teaching us. Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that AIDS is spread by sex and/or blood contact. Also the only way you can get AIDS is if you get it from someone else who already has it. Someone in my class suggested we get rid of all the people with AIDS and thus ridding the world of the disease. While I believe this a horrible idea, i want to know if somehow all the people with AIDS were rounded up, would it really work?

My second question relates to AIDS in the gay community. I have noticed that AIDS awareness is publicised by the gay community. Why is this the case? If AIDS can only be spread if one person has it why is the gay community at more risk than the hetro community? Anyway I feel a bit stupid asking all these questions but I've been wondering about them for a while, hopefully someone can shed some light on the subject for me

[Stew]

Dave,
Firstly a big hello and welcome
Secondly, Never feel stupid asking a question, any question is a good question and makes us think.

I am on my way to work and haven't got the time to compose answers to your questions right now, but I will this evening.

See you later
Stew

[cowboy_wannabe]

first of all, a huge hello and welcome from a fellow 16 year old! i hope you keep posting here and come to enjoy it as much as i have.

secondly, you're right that they don't necessarily teach "everything" about aids in school, and that's kind of depressing. coming from a rural town, i know first hand that our teachers (by way of the school board and state) censors much of what can be taught, like prevention, contraceptives, etc. most of what you get is "abstinance, abstinance, abstinance!"

to answer your first question, i'll have to answer your first.

the gay community is most publicly aware with dealing with aids because we are the ones most affected. the first case was reported in (correct me if i'm wrong guys!) 1958. basically, scientists traced it back to a man from a tribe in africa who was infected by chimps in the area. some say this could have happened because chimp blood was poured on the genetals after circumcision (which obviously would spread infection).

now, it first got transferred to the gay community. how, no one is really sure of, but it got started there and before everyone know it, millions were infected. by the 80's it was really seen as "the gay disease." eventually, through sex and drugs and what not, it did spread to heterosexuals. now days, aids actually affects more blacks, mostly women in the 20s-30s range. what's even more frightening is that the ammount of people becoming aids-infected is rising. lucky, though, the gay community (and the world in general) is being active in trying to combat aids and increase awareness.

regardless of who it affects, it IS an epidemic, it's killing millions and it needs to be stopped.

how, exactly? here's your second question.

in theory, if you could round up everyone who had hiv or aids, it might be possible to stop the disease. i find this most comparable, though, to what hitler did to stop the "jewish epidemic" in world war ii... terrible, just plain terrible. to put it bluntly, i don't think it will ever be stopped, and it's best just to look out for yourself and your partners and friends.

i feel like i just wrote a book, but i hope it helped

[Micah]

Wow, thanks cowboy. That clears up a lot of stuff for me . the idea of rounding everyone up was of course theoritical and as you said is a horrible idea. Thanks again and i look forward to being an active member of the community on EC

[TriBi]

Dave,

Yeah, cowboy has some good relevant facts in his post.

A couple of other things I would mention. HIV/Aids was initially known as the "Gay disease" because, early on in the piece it mainly affected gay men. There are probably a couple of main reasons for this. Firstly, it is passed on by the exchange of bodily fluids (eg semen into anothers bloodstream). At the time it first became prevalent gay men had something of a reputation (be it deserved or not) of tending to often lead a quite promiscuous lifestyle. There was a lot of fucking (anal intercourse) without the use of condoms. The anus is far more likely than a vagina to sustain tears in the skin...thus enabling the transmission of the disease..

As time progressed, the gay community became very good at educating about the need for "safe sex" and the incidence within the gay community dropped dramatically. Unfortunately, there now seems to be a degree of complacency creeping in (maybe due to better treatments being available, maybe other reasons) which means that some members of the gay community are less careful than they should be.

Hpowever, the real explosive growth areas for the disease now is outside the gay community...one instance IV drug users, but most especially the heterosexual communities in third world (especially African) countries where unprotected sex is commonplace, and men who have been infected (say by prostitutes) pass the disease to their wives/partners. In some parts of Africa the estimated infection rate is horrendous.

BTW, Googling on "Aids" will give you a plethora of info to look at (around 53million web pages), Googling on "Aids Africa" will give you around 10million. The first one I looked at quoted stats (several years old) indicating a global total of over 34million people infected...in excess of 24million of those were in Sub Saharan Africa. Gives you an idea of the depth of the problem.

As regards the theoretical idea of "rounding up" all the people with Aids...would that stop the spread of the disease?...well, the answer is unlikely. in some cases it can lie dormant for quite a long time...so how would you know?

Hope this helps...but, don't forget...a combination of the right words on Google can give you a heap of useful stuff to sift through (Aids + Safe sex gives you over 1,200,000 pages!)

Happy hunting :wink:

[Stew]

Hi again Dave,
Sorry it took me longer to get back to you. I see Cowboy and Tribi have already answered
Thought I would add a little more:

What must be appreciated is that AIDS is the tip of the iceberg. For every case of AIDS there are between 50 and 100 individuals who are infected but do not exhibit the symptoms of the disease. These individuals are called asymptomatic carriers. They appear normal but carry the virus and are capable of spreading the infection. Persons infected with advanced symptoms of the disease are usually too ill to participate in sexual activities. Therefore, it is the asymptomatic carrier who is primarily responsible for spreading the disease and keeping the epidemic growing!
It is important to remember that when you read about "AIDS", you are focusing in on what happened five to ten years ago, since AIDS is the end stage of the disease process. Antibody data gives you a much clearer idea about what is happening at present.
It is unfortunate in this country and the USA that the AIDS epidemic first began in the gay community, lulling many experts to believe that this was strictly a disease of male homosexuals. However, AIDS is a heterosexual disease just like every other venereal disease. The ratio of infected men to women in Africa is 1.1 to 1. Obviously this is not a gay disease in Africa! Spouse transmission studies involving stable monogamous relationships revealed that women and men who received infected blood transfusions subsequently infected their unknowing spouses. Recent studies have concluded that a woman has about 1 in 2 to 10 chance of being infected if she has sex with an infected male. This happens to be the same risk that she would face if the male was infected with gonorrhea or syphilis. The risk of a woman infecting a man is less, perhaps 1 in 10 to 25.

Hope some of that is interesting to you
Sew

[Micah]

Thanks so much guys, you've completely answered my queries. I just wish education in schools covered these type of things better instead of leaving people to what they hear of the playground.

Again thanks heaps, you really helped me out

[okstatecowboy]

As several have already mentioned, what is or isn't taught in the classroom depends strongly on the district's curriculum and the local Board of Education. For instance, in the state of Kansas, our health education (sex ed) states that abstinence is the only sexual topic to be discussed until students are in high school. At that point, STDs may be discussed in 9th grade, pregnancy in 10th grade, alternatives to abortion in 11th, and finally sexual relations in 12th grade. My Board of Education recently ruled that abotion would not be mentioned at all, and that 12th graders would learn about sexual relations from a board approved religious leader -in other words, wait until you're married.

mikey

[Corny]

^ i really have to say that i am kinda shocked about that!

you get the basics here (germany) in 4th grade (sexual organs, the woman can get a baby by "love" ) and all the rest (pregnacy, sexual intercourse, contraception, abortion, condom use, STDs) during the 7th grade.
what the hell do you want to learn about it in 12th grade? many will be 18 at that time already and have learnt more from own (maybe BAD) experiences than from school *confused*

[hawkeye]

with that kind of sex ed (in Kansas), Itd be amazing if any of the kids cared about the dangers. Here in Wisconsin, it's similar to in Germany.

[okstatecowboy]

Originally Posted by hawkeye

with that kind of sex ed (in Kansas), Itd be amazing if any of the kids cared about the dangers. Here in Wisconsin, it's similar to in Germany.

And then the district wonders why roughly 20% of the high school girls drop out because of pregnancy... "Gee, I didn't know you could get pregnant the first time."

mikey

Whoot to reviving old threads that really shouldnt be dead in the first place...man oh man...ok ppl listen up, this thread is not only VERY relevant to all of us but uuber important to.

Safe-sex or no-sex this summer! Just cuz you dont have to worry about pregnancy doesnt mean you're free nope...here comes a whole other caché of dark treasures.

[Dejavu]

im gonan give this thread a bump because as proud said it is UBER important. I have never practised safe sex in my current relationship, the fact being i have never needed to. But i have never made my partner wear a condom and he never has, although we decided very early on in our relationship that we wouldnt as i hate the dam things, i now wish i had made him wear one as the cases of AIDS were brought more to my attention and someone i knew contracted an AIDS related illness.

(yes i said knew)

[boysbe]

I consider the asian counterparts totally left out the sex education. Guess being brought up in a conservative country, anything that goes against the norms are taboos. Like the saying goes 'You cant teach an old dog new tricks'. And the situation aint improving with the fact that the older generation are trying their best in shielding their youngsters. So with the family being uptight, i'm not surprise most of the youngsters who are sexually active are ignorant and clueless.

[Director]

It sickens me how conservative some people will be to the point of not teaching this kinda stuff. I live in Ontario, and we start learning about this in Grade 6! And I knew all of it, even before that. My parents sat me down for 'the talk' when I was in Grade 4! It's also a wonder how so many places will disallow teaching these things but are baffled as to why it is such a problem.

[tired_of_lying411]

I recently saw an interview with a man who was involved in creating a vacination that would not cure AIDS, but stop it from being contageous and stop it from being worse (not sure on any of these facts, so dont hold me to it)

Anyway, he stated that if everyone who had it was vaccinated, the spread rate of AIDS could be dropped enormously. The government, of course, said it was way too expensive (and its still in the test phase, so they werent too serious)

He then told them that they could either pay for it now, and save millions of lives while doing so (of people who will contract it in the future), or pay later. Basically a lump sum or installment thing... it all made really great sense, and I hope it works out.

AIDS is a devastating and expensive disease, and we just MAY have a chance to slow it down, dramatically. Until then, all we can do is make sure we, personally, stay safe.

[step49x]

I've recently joined an AIDS Awareness group, so I've just started actually learning about this kind of stuff.

Part of the problem with vaccinations and AIDS are a) vaccinations are expensive, and b) the vast majority of the people who have AIDS (think poor Africans) don't have nearly enough money to go and buy them.

Oh, and an excerpt from an article I have, entitled "The Deep Roots of AIDS," about the origin of AIDS:

Originally Posted by The Deep Roots of AIDS by Nicholas D. Kristof

It was about 70 years ago, evidence suggests, that a man somewhere in this remote forest area of southeastern Cameroon butchered a sick chimpanzee -- and the AIDS virus was born.

Chimpanzees here carry a strain of simian immunodeficiency virus (the monkey version of H.I.V.) that is genetically close to the main human variant. So the scientific betting is that the virus jumped to humans here and then traveled with human hosts by river south to Kinshasa, Congo, and then eventually to the wider world. The first proven case dates from Kinshasa in 1959.

Full article: http://www.aegis.org/news/nyt/2006/NYT060917.html

[Ericku]

Question if a man1 swallow a man2's semen and the man2 have aid/hiv do the man1 who swallowed the semen get the aids/hiv ?

[step49x]

I'd think that it's definately possible, if not probable.

[Micah]

Originally Posted by Ericku

Question if a man1 swallow a man2's semen and the man2 have aid/hiv do the man1 who swallowed the semen get the aids/hiv ?

Sexually transmitted Infections are still transmittable through oral sex (particularly if the semen is swallowed). While the risk isn't as quite as high as with actual sex, it is still there.