Sunday, July 18, 2004

Lies all lies

I got the first sentence of the paragraph and that was as far as I could get.
 
"the politics of getting more lifesaving antiretroviral medicine to the millions of HIV-infected people who need it in the developing world, especially in Africa."
 
That should be life prolonging, not life saving.  Unless they are talking about the drugs that prevent HIV from transferring from the mother to the child, and there are some concerns about those drugs.
 
that emphasize abstinence over the trusted HIV-blocking method of using condoms.
 
So abstinence can't be trusted?
 
 Mechai told The Associated Press. "How can you [Leaders] afford to let your people become sick and die in larger numbers than by so-called enemies in wars?"
 
Well actually they got the disease because of their personal choices (barring they did not get aids from poor health care).  So the leaders did not "let" it happen, it happened because people made poor choices.
 
cube



2 comments:

Andrew said...

And why did they make poor choices? Because of poor information about the disease and the ways to avoid it.

And why do they have poor information? Because the people (infected and uninfected) are forced to make up a folk mythology that explains why the cure to a plague is available, but innaccessible.

And why is it innaccessible? Because the local people are too destitute (and ill) to import the drugs; because the local governments are too poor to personally import the drugs; because the citizens of first world democracies have their finances spread to thin to adequately subsidize the the import of the drugs; and because the shareholders of drug companies are too detached to sacrifice profit to accomodate immediate human need.

These people are not the same demographic as the American victims of HIV. They don't have free condoms at the local nightclub, or the NIH and CDC telling them to be especailly careful when they bandage the leg of their brother after the guerrillas shot him.

These people live in countries where as many as 1 in 4 people are already infected, not 7 in 1000 as it is here. How long do you think you'd stay uninfected if 25% or more of the people you knew were infected? It's not just sex and drugs that transmit the virus, you know.

Yes, wide distribution of anti-retroviral medications would be lifesaving. It would curb the spread of epidemic. Even on an individual level, it can "prolong" life long enough that it's not even the cause of death. That's now a regular happening in first world countries, and is about as close to "lifesaving" as you can get.

Man of Issachar said...

And why did they make poor choices? Because of poor information about the disease and the ways to avoid it.

then give them information.

"the cure to a plague is available, but innaccessible."
like i said before it is not cure.

check this out.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/03/000329170341.htm


secondly.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/09/010904072453.htm

do you really want a drug resistant aids virus floating around when we don't even have a cure yet.

It's not just sex and drugs that transmit the virus, you know.

yes, that is true. but those are the primary methods at first, and are still the primay methods of getting aids even in third would countires.

"Heterosexual transmission accounts for more than 70% of all HIV infections worldwide. Certain groups are more likely to contract and spread HIV, such as commercial sex workers (CSWs)"

http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/HDNet/hddocs.nsf/c840b59b6982d2498525670c004def60/0560436b70e56de385256a4800524119?OpenDocument#section2


Yes, wide distribution of anti-retroviral medications would be lifesaving. It would curb the spread of epidemic.

agreed, but not having sex would also.

"Even on an individual level, it can "prolong" life long enough that it's not even the cause of death. That's now a regular happening in first world countries, and is about as close to "lifesaving" as you can get."

yea so that person has a few more years to transmit it to someone else.

i am even more convinced after my research that if the people would control their desires and work toward peace and good healther care this disease might be stopped.