Sunday, August 03, 2008

Did you look under the bed, too?

"Whoops! We forgot to check under the sofa cushions!" says the CDC, upon discovering that a whole bunch more people had AIDS than they thought.
Posted by @
Labels: ,

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whoop$!

We screwed up.

Give us more money.

10:00 AM, August 03, 2008
Tam said...

That goes without saying. There are two Government Agency scripts:

1) "Look how great a job we're doing! Give us more money so we can keep doing it!"

2) "Wow, we're all screwed up! Give us more money so we can fix our problems!"

10:09 AM, August 03, 2008
Roberta X said...

Looks like another triumph for rap culture -- which means we should be looking for an uptick in the HIV rate of Brainless Suburban Youth any day now.

With the slow development of a retrovirus before symptoms show up and the even slower working out of what it was, the first ~decade of HIV cases was a genuine tragedy.

But given the spread of information, especially here in the US, it's more like evolution in action these days. Health crisis? More like a keeping-your-underpants-on crisis.

Of course, the human race wasn't very good at that even before underthings were invented.

2:49 PM, August 03, 2008
Anonymous said...

Last I checked, HIV was 100% preventable by simply not engaging in certain behaviors. My sympathy is somewhat tempered by this simple fact. Are there really people out there that haven't figured this out?

4:09 PM, August 03, 2008
Anonymous said...

Roberta X said...
Looks like another triumph for rap culture -- which means we should be looking for an uptick in the HIV rate of Brainless Suburban Youth any day now.
2:49 PM, August 03, 2008


Racist! Racist!!!

And pay no attention to the increasing rates of other STDs as well and exactly how they're filtering through the system...

One has to be a little dense to diddle around in a group of folks that the CDC says is running at 50% STD infection rates...and it seems they tend to underrate such things. "I'm not hurting anybody but myself!" Wanna bet?

5:06 PM, August 03, 2008
Anonymous said...

Tam said...
1) "Look how great a job we're doing! Give us more money so we can keep doing it!"
10:09 AM, August 03, 2008


Disturbingly, I think that might now be "The Good Old Days".

5:12 PM, August 03, 2008
Weer'd Beard said...

Jeremy, Great point!

Have you noticed the amount of sympathy that comes from the populous in general for people who become sick and die from lung cancer because of smoking. (I remember reading a piece on Dave Hardy's blog about how everybody's attitude changed for his cancer striken late-wife when they found out she was a smoker.

How is this any different?

5:13 PM, August 03, 2008
alath said...

From the article: "Identifying all those who are infected and linking them to treatment is the only way to break the chain of new infections and begin to address the nation's runaway epidemic," he said.

So, let me get this straight: according to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the best - no, the only - way to decrease the rate of new infections is to treat people who already have HIV?

Just about every successful HIV prevention program I have heard of focused on changing high risk behaviors.

Treating people who already are infected is another problem. Needs to be done, but I don't see how it is a major part of a prevention program - let alone "the only way" to prevent new infections.

5:28 PM, August 03, 2008
Anonymous said...

Alath, the article also said: "The number of people newly infected has remained relatively stable since the late 1990s, and the more accurate estimate does not change that, the CDC said."

A 40% jump over what they thought the infection rates were counts as relatively stable? I don't think logic flows very watery when it comes to AIDS.

Oh well, yet another thing for the taxpayers and the insured to pick up the bill. "But I'll die if you don't pay for it!" Bah...

5:50 PM, August 03, 2008
Roberta X said...

Racist? Last time I checked, both "rap" and "Brainless Suburban Youth" were roles not filled according to skin color -- come to think of it, neither is "Swapper Of Bodily Fluids."

While I'm ever so happy the Baby Boom had their little window of Free Love and good antibiotics, that window was closin' when the first incurable social disease showed up. If herpes wasn't enough of a "Stop Being A Vector" warning, what came next certainly was.

Untimely death is always sad. Stupid is pretty sad, too.

9:29 PM, August 03, 2008
Anonymous said...

http://www.zombietime.com/up_your_alley_2008/

The link above will show you, in a multitude of photos, how people who are more susceptible to aids are taking better steps to protect themselves and not participate in such risky behavior.

Not.

10:22 PM, August 03, 2008
staghounds said...

The article also tells us that Dr. Fenton thinks the President sets the budget.

11:35 PM, August 03, 2008
staghounds said...

And I like the CDC's web slogan-

"Your on line source for credible health information".

Not accurate, or correct, but it does sound believable.

11:41 PM, August 03, 2008
Anonymous said...

People with full-blown AIDS already do look pretty much like Death-Warmed-Over, and the virus IS highly contagious with no known cure. What if the virus didn't cause the victim to die but turned them into the undead? Is a war with zombies be looming on the horizon?

11:56 PM, August 03, 2008
Brad K. said...

Alath, I think the point the CDC is making, about getting those with HIV virus into treatment, is a two part strategy.

First, many of those with the virus, at first, don't know it, or it hasn't been confirmed. Identifying everyone infected, and monitoring their exposure to others is quite important. I imagine the greater majority of new exposures is from people that didn't know they had the HIV virus.

Second, the CDC isn't involved in the health of individual US citizens. Only people with diseases they are interested in, such as HIV, count on their reports and studies. Since they primarily get blamed only for people that get sick from contact with a sick person already tracked by the CDC, their primary focus is on infections from contact with 'their' people.

And there might be a bit of institutional arrogance. That is, it isn't HIV until it is confirmed and in the CDC books. Obviously there isn't any risk from anyone that the CDC isn't tracking. (I meant that last bit sarcastically.) If the CDC isn't tracking someone, they don't have HIV *officially*.

Roberta X, Renaissance Italy had a rampant STD problem. They resorted to chastity for their daughters to give the groom at least a chance at making an heir before his dallying around got him sterile and feeble.

And I think it is pregnancy you are thinking about, that keeping your underthings on will prevent. Sometimes that interferes with HIV, but I understood it was sharing needles responsible for most HIV cases in the US, with hetero, missionary position sex coming in third. "Surprise, honey! Guess what I brought home!" As we were taught in the Navy, VD is nothing to *clap* about.

12:58 AM, August 04, 2008
Anonymous said...

"limited data and less precise methods," ..........

Who'd a'thunk just wandering around asking "Do you have AIDS? Do you know anyone who has AIDS? would give "limited data" and be less than precise?

Is "unlimited data" what they are after? I am not about to give them unlimited data.... if the right to privacy must die before HIV is wiped out, then I hope HIV is here to stay.

1:17 AM, August 04, 2008
alath said...

"I imagine the greater majority of new exposures is from people that didn't know they had the HIV virus."

You might imagine that, by transposing your attitudes and ethics on to the behavior of high risk folks (ie, if you knew you had HIV, you would change your behavior).

However, this is not consistent with my clinical experience in this population. People who seroconvert generally know they are engaging in high risk behaviors with high risk partners, and the partners generally know they're infected. I have yet to have a single HIV+ patient who was infected by someone who was unaware of their HIV+ status, and in most cases, the patients they infected were aware, too.

Again, the most successful HIV prevention programs are based on modifying high risk behaviors among people who are not infected yet.

4:31 PM, August 04, 2008

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)