johnmill@mmintl.UUCP (John Miller) (10/09/86)
In article <4207@reed.UUCP> jeanne@reed.UUCP (Jeanne A. E. DeVoto) writes: >In article <1826@mmintl.UUCP> johnmill@mmintl.UUCP (John Miller) writes: >> [ about AIDS in Central Africa, where AIDS has been recognized for >> about 3 years and 20% of the population is infected ] >>However, many of the infected children shown were patently more than >>three years old. HOW DID THEY GET AIDS? > [ argument that AIDS was prevalent in Central Africa long before > recognized ] >So, the explanation is simple. The older children most likely got it >while being carried by infected mothers, just like the younger ones. Easy to check; the mothers of children with AIDS should then also have AIDS. Is anybody looking into this? If Jeanne's hypothesis is correct then finding the oldest children so infected might well help to pinpoint the time and place where AIDS originated. A statistical plot of percentage of incidence vs. age might also be very useful in other ways, such as prediction of the future spread of the disease elsewhere. --johnmill
cole@sri-unix.ARPA (Susan E. Cole) (11/03/86)
Another known common source for AIDS in African children is through shots ... apparently mothers have been led to believe "the more shots the better" and needles are routinely reused.