AIDS virus learns to fly!

[Benguin]

Found this on www.overpopulation.org. To be fair, the honourable kumar found the site as part of another thread.

Why is an overpopulation group interested in Aids?
Answer: AIDS is prevalent in Africa, where some of the world's biggest population growth is taking place. In Sub-Sahara Africa, it often the norm for unmarried females to have children to prove fertility so that they can be eligible for marriage. So, with the high promiscuity rate, the resulting high growth rate, and the high concentration of AIDS, there is the possibility that AIDS will mutate into a disease that is airborne (think: "Black Death", the Bubonic plague)

(My emphasis)

Anyone heard this gem before?

 

[aerocontrols]

Jealous?

 

[geni]

Found this on www.overpopulation.org. To be fair, the honourable kumar found the site as part of another thread.

(My emphasis)

Anyone heard this gem before?

Yes in poor sci fi. There are an awful lot of problems the virus would have to overcome in order to make the switch though.

 

[MRC_Hans]

Basic lack of understanding of evolution. In an area where the existing infection path is highly successful, there is no selection pressure in the direction of new paths, so indeed it would be LESS likely to happen there.

Hans

 

[Benguin]

Jealous?

Absolutely.

Actually, I was disappointed. I thought the site might have lots of interesting essays on modern conundrums of the environment, public health, etc.

After reading that bit I couldn't be bothered to find out what else they had to say.

Still, worth posting it as it should get Geni going whenever he appears.

 

[Suezoled]

*goes between wanting to laugh and wanting to cry. Settles for laughing until crying*

 

[Jon_in_london]

"In Sub-Sahara Africa, it often the norm for unmarried females to have children to prove fertility so that they can be eligible for marriage. "

I lived in Sub Saharan Africa for 25 years and never heard such utter tosh.

 

[Benguin]

The article there is almost daft enough to be a parody. I wonder if I missed the joke?

I also had never heard that one, and have spent a fair amount of time in mid-africa.

On the other hand, non-consensual, unprotected sex is commonplace. Museveni was even recently quoted as saying the majority of young women's first sexual encounters were of this nature. He regarded that phenomenon as one of the major hurdles to overcome in the fight against the spread of aids.

 

[Jon_in_london]

On the other hand, non-consensual, unprotected sex is commonplace. Museveni was even recently quoted as saying the majority of young women's first sexual encounters were of this nature. He regarded that phenomenon as one of the major hurdles to overcome in the fight against the spread of aids.

I dont know about non-consensual sex, but unprotected is the norm.

One of the things that does happen is "dry sex" in which vinegar or lemon juice is applied to the vagina to dry it out. Obviously, the resulting abraison to both male and female greatly increases the chance of trasminssion of disease.

However, this is likely to be only a minor factor contributing to the current epidemic.

Far more important is the taboo that surrounded sex and sexual education in sub-saharan africa until it was faaaaar too late. For example, condoms were banned in Malawi until the early 90s and attempts to get people to use them are all too little too late. The major problem by then was the prevalence of other STDs such as herpes and so on. This resuls in a lot of people with genital lesions that makes HIV very easy to catch. Couple this with general poor nutrition and a complete absence of anti-retroviral drugs and subsequent high viral loads and you can see why it spreads so fast.

I found the speed at which AIDS killed the people there interesting. In the West, survival times after the first bout of AIDS-related disease is usually measured in years. In sub-saharan Africa, its measured in weeks....

 

[Capsid]

On the other hand, non-consensual, unprotected sex is commonplace

My understanding of the situation is that HIV positive men in parts of Africa believe that to cure them of the disease, they must rape a virgin girl, which clearly just compounds the problem.

sex with a virgin is a cure for HIV.

 

[Jon_in_london]

My understanding of the situation is that HIV positive men in parts of Africa believe that to cure them of the disease, they must rape a virgin girl, which clearly just compounds the problem.

sex with a virgin is a cure for HIV.

Thats true. Every now and again in South Africa, one hears of a baby being gang-raped by men trying to rid themselves of AIDS.

 

[Benguin]

I dont know about non-consensual sex, but unprotected is the norm.

One of the things that does happen is "dry sex" in which vinegar or lemon juice is applied to the vagina to dry it out. Obviously, the resulting abraison to both male and female greatly increases the chance of trasminssion of disease.

However, this is likely to be only a minor factor contributing to the current epidemic.

Far more important is the taboo that surrounded sex and sexual education in sub-saharan africa until it was faaaaar too late. For example, condoms were banned in Malawi until the early 90s and attempts to get people to use them are all too little too late. The major problem by then was the prevalence of other STDs such as herpes and so on. This resuls in a lot of people with genital lesions that makes HIV very easy to catch. Couple this with general poor nutrition and a complete absence of anti-retroviral drugs and subsequent high viral loads and you can see why it spreads so fast.

I found the speed at which AIDS killed the people there interesting. In the West, survival times after the first bout of AIDS-related disease is usually measured in years. In sub-saharan Africa, its measured in weeks....

Certainly Uganda has (to its credit) demonstrated that open honesty is the way forward, turning around the epidemic that was engulfing them. Countries like Botswana with a traditionally much more conservative approach have struggled to make an impact.

I'm trying to find the source for the non-consensual comment, it was one of the african leaders. Not that that is massively relevant, proof would be a proper bit of research!