Blog #9 - Craziness

This weeks QOTW made me wonder about the craziest documented cases of HIV transmission, so I did a little research.  The craziest documented case of HIV infection that I could find was during acupuncture (Drug3k.com, 2011).  HIV had been transmitted through human bites as well but that makes sense because of the blood that would be involved (Drug3k.com, 2011).  It makes it seem highly unlikely that anybody would be able to get HIV from being scratched by a dog that had previously scratched someone that is HIV positive.

 

One very interesting thing that I did find during my research was a wacko that is trying to spread HIV rumors.  She wrote a book and according to web site that advertises it, the author reveals that, "the AIDS [HIV] virus survives outside the body for days. That blood on intact skin can transmit AIDS. That AIDS has been transmitted through contact sports. That the water supply is in danger. There are potential dangers in the food supply. The government could control the AIDS epidemic immediately and why they refuse to do so." (Day, 2011) It is pretty unfortunate that there are still people out there trying to get everyone to panic about HIV.  It seems like the physician is just trying to stir up trouble for the CDC, and revive all the negative stigmas toward people that are HIV positive.  I just hope that most people will be intelligent enough to trust hundreds of researchers and physicians rather than just believe the opinion of one.  A large majority of what she is claiming is pretty absurd, almost to the point of being humorous.  The way that she claims that the "food and water supply is in danger" makes it sound like she is trying to sell some new end of the world theory.  Unfortunately, I am sure that there are people that will go along with her, just like there were people that believed that the world was going to end in the year 2000. 


References:

Day, L. (2011). AIDS: What the government isn't telling you. Retrieved March 23, 2011, from http://www.drday.com/aidsinfo.htm

Drug3k.com. (2011). HIV from urine on toilet seat. Retrieved March 23, 2011, from http://www.drug3k.com/forum1/STDs/HIV-from-urine-on-a-toilet-seat-17159.htm

Did You Know?

This week I have decided to look at China.  They are still considered a developing country despite their recent economic boom.  I have to say that HIV/AIDS is not as bad as I would have imagined in a country with the highest population in the world.  There are 740,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, and a prevalence rate of 0.1% among adults age 15-49 (UNAIDS, 2009).  Of the 730,000 adults infected (age 15-49) only 230,000 are women (UNAIDS, 2009).  This is one of the few developing countries that I have looked at where there are more infected men than women.  Overall, there have been 26,000 deaths caused by HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS, 2009).  I was very interested to look at the statistics for China because of their massive population, but interestingly enough, they have a tiny prevalence rate and a small infected population.  I suppose this indicates that society and culture have a lot to do with the prevalence of HIV/AIDS.  

References:
UNAIDS. (2009). China. Retrieved March 16, 2011, from http://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/china
 

I have also included a video wherein an author claims that 90% of the cases of HIV are a result of unclean transfusions.  The author also claims that the communist regime has oppressed a lot of the AIDS activists.  This makes me wonder about the accuracy of the data I got from UNAIDS.