Dear List:
> I find it facinating the way Mr. Mbeki has decided over the issue. He called four or five scientits of each side, and asked them to debate the question for some time. After that, he decided that he wouldn´t pay for medication,
on the grounds that, in Africa, nobody was testing HIV, but diagnosing by
the symptoms only.
South Africa is now working on distributing drugs to people with HIV/AIDS. It is now more a question of money than science.
> And as it can be very well confirmed, those symptoms are the same when people are starving.
Only some but not all. Also, these same illnesses are not appearing in all places where people are starving and have poor sanitation. Also, gay men suffer from AIDS in places where they do not starve and sanitation is good. Also, only a percentage of the gay population uses drugs, so there must be another explanation.
Also, how do you account for cases of AIDS acquired by blood transfusion?
> To me, that´s good enough to problematize AIDS, the fact that there is no testing for HIV going on in most of Africa, and it is still being anounced that Africa has the larger number of cases.
There is a great deal of testing that is going on in Africa. To me what has to be problematized is the poor global response to AIDS. People with HIV/AIDS are stigmatized, money is not allocated and people are allowed to die.
Brian in Brooklyn
> I find it facinating the way Mr. Mbeki has decided over the issue. He called four or five scientits of each side, and asked them to debate the question for some time. After that, he decided that he wouldn´t pay for medication,
on the grounds that, in Africa, nobody was testing HIV, but diagnosing by
the symptoms only.
South Africa is now working on distributing drugs to people with HIV/AIDS. It is now more a question of money than science.
> And as it can be very well confirmed, those symptoms are the same when people are starving.
Only some but not all. Also, these same illnesses are not appearing in all places where people are starving and have poor sanitation. Also, gay men suffer from AIDS in places where they do not starve and sanitation is good. Also, only a percentage of the gay population uses drugs, so there must be another explanation.
Also, how do you account for cases of AIDS acquired by blood transfusion?
> To me, that´s good enough to problematize AIDS, the fact that there is no testing for HIV going on in most of Africa, and it is still being anounced that Africa has the larger number of cases.
There is a great deal of testing that is going on in Africa. To me what has to be problematized is the poor global response to AIDS. People with HIV/AIDS are stigmatized, money is not allocated and people are allowed to die.
Brian in Brooklyn