fisher@smiley.DEC (Gerry --- Terminally Inane) (10/02/85)
RE: AIDS > "There is only one black and white fact on which we'll both > agree: don't come into contact with the virus (exposure to > blood, semen and serus products) and you'll never have to worry > about AIDS." True. Keep in mind that the infected bodily fluids must come in contact with blood, making it nearly impossible to transmit except through sexual intercourse and sharing hypodermic needles (blood donations are being successfully screened at this time). This information is documented in every safe-sex pamphlet I have read. >There are now confirmed reports of men with no history of homosexual >contact contracting AIDS through oral sex with infected female >prostitutes. I don't think that these reports have been confirmed yet. I believe that this is the story that some servicemen, serving in Germany, gave as a possible explanation for their contracting the disease. I find this highly unlikely for several reasons. 1) Transmitting the disease from a woman to a man during sexual activity is difficult, since the woman does not inject fluids into the man. He would have to have cuts in his mouth, abrasions on his skin, or he would have had to swallow a large amount of cum. All of these instances are unlikely. 2) I assume that men go to prostitutes to receive pleasure, not to give it. From most accounts, prostitutes are very business-like and do not need to be stimulated by their tricks. Unless the man is incredibly turned on by giving oral stimulation, I doubt that he would do this with a prostitute. (Call me old fashioned, but... :-) ) >One of the medical workers who poked him/herself with a needle used to >draw blood from an AIDS patient has come down with AIDS. This is not documented. THERE ARE DOZENS OF DOCUMENTED CASES WHERE HEALTH CARE WORKERS *DID* POKE THEMSELVES WITH NEEDLES, BUT *DID NOT* CONTRACT THE DISEASE. I will try to post the titles of articles or books that verify this. There are also recently completed studies concluding that living with people with AIDS presents almost *no* risk to the healthy person. The studies find that such things as sharing tooth brushes, razors, and clothes does not effectively transmit the disease. The results of these studies were reported by the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta on 9/30/85; I heard the results on the radio and they verify the information that I have received through the Boston AIDS Action Committee. To date, we have determined that the virus (unlike others) cannot survive outside of the body for a long period of time. IN THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OF THIS EPIDEMIC, THERE IS NO DOCUMENTED CASE OF SOMEONE RECEIVING AIDS THROUGH CASUAL CONTACT. >Sorry I can't provide references; this is drawn from conversation with >my internist, a person for whom I have a great deal of respect. Please try to document these statements; I'll do my best to dig up my sources in the future. >He believes that the number of AIDS cases will grow by many orders of >magnitude in the next few years, and that it may wipe out much of the >third world where sanitary conditions are bleak. His descriptions of >society after the plague becomes established sound like science fiction >post-holocaust stories (towns which become armed camps where strangers >may not enter, wholesale lynchings of homosexuals, mass hysteria). >Depressing. Not quite. Most people feel that AIDS is similar to many viruses in the respect that 10% of those infected with the virus will actually get the disease. I think that the coalitions formed by gay communities across the nation will prevent the type of lynchings, et al, that you describe. Education is happening at a faster pace since Rock Hudson's disclosure. In the case of AIDS hysteria and the prevention of transmition, education is everything (please someone, tell the US government this fact!). All in all, it will get worse (for gay people in general) before it gets better. Discrimination, discompassionate behaviour, and absolute hatred will bare their fangs. (Someone once said that you can judge the level of civilization by the way in which a society treats its sick, injured, and weak.) But, through the gift of modern mass communication, improved education, and civil order, I think that the gay community (and the communities at large) will come out of this alive and well. Gerry Fisher ...decvax!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-smiley!fisher *************************************************************************** Nashua, NH: Where the men are men, and the sheep are nervous.