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Many people in Africa don't contract the disease by sex, but by other means such as blood to blood contact. I read a report a little while back saying that even in areas where safe sex had a higher usage.. the numbers in HIV cases didn't quite go down. They attributed this to saying that Africa's problem lies not only with education on sex, but by other means.
Honestly, it is really hard to compare HIV cases in Africa to those in the United States or other developed countries because it simply is another world.
Rates of new HIV infections are dropping dramatically across Africa. The countries with the highest prevalence are seeing the greatest declines (73% in Malawi, 71% in Botswana, 68% in Namibia, 58% in Zambia, 50% in Zimbabwe and 41% in South Africa and Swaziland.)
So I'm not sure where that report is from. Heterosexual sex has always been the main form of transmission there.
Now, Eastern Europe/Central Asia is another story. That's one of the only regions where infections are rising now.
What a scary post! Im going to go back and read it. Meanwhile, I know a person who has a roommate who is a straight male who has HIV / AIDS. He spent some time in juvenile hall, so maybe since there were only males around something happened that otherwise wouldn't have Just noting that because I think it's important to the discussion. I have heard of a "famous" person (and not just rumor, though I don't know them personally , him I should say, 1 man), who did get the virus from his girlfriend. I think it's possible though not probable.
A lot of Bisexual men will not tell their women they are not totally straight.
Absolutely and a big part of that is that we are living in a sexually repressed society. We are not open about sex or sexuality and talking honestly about our thoughts, feelings and desires and even our behaviour for fear of being shamed. I imagine if we ever reach the point where we can discuss sexuality openly, STD transmission will decrease considerably.
...Slightly off-topic, but where I come from(Quebec) we had the individual who was blamed for starting it; Gaetan Dugas. Some info for those who are interested:....
It appears at this point that one Robert Rayford, who died in Mississippi in 1969, was the earliest person thus far discovered in the U.S. to have had AIDS. The source of his infection is unknown at present.
The story of Gaetan Dugas as the theoretical "patient zero" was disproven even before Randy Shilts published his notorious misrepresentation of Dugas. There was no medical "patient zero" in the study that Shilts cited, he misinterpreted the data, took the ball and ran with it. And by the time of his book's publication it was already known that the virus had been found in blood stored in the 1970's. But neither Shilts nor his publisher were about to excise this juicy Dracula-like bit from his book before publication, and Dugas was safely dead and in his grave.
As analysis of blood samples taken in the 1970's for a hepatitis study in NYC showed, there were already people who were already infected at that time. This was before Dugas became ill, and before he was travelling to various parts of the U.S. on his job, before he was supposedly being the person to infect America.
The story is totally bogus. If Randy Shilts had not featured and fictionalized Dugas in his book, the guy would have lived and died as just another AIDS patient...unknown to any of us.
The tragedy of the early epidemic was that it was identified as "the gay cancer." And as the U.S. government had spent years educating the public that cancer is not a disease which one can catch from other people the assumption was that the people with "gay cancer" were catching it from some thing (e.g. amyl nitrite use) and not from another person. Dugas himself was told he had cancer, and, of course, believed what the doctors told him.
You will find that all the earliest attention was focused on AIDS as a cancer, and the search was for the agent that would cause it. Off on the wrong foot, unfortunately, but as Kaposi's Sarcoma was the most visible opportunistic manifestation of AIDS infection, it was mistaken as indicating the nature of AIDS.
Google says that the 'hetero white men won't get HIV' thing is a myth popular among PUAs. I had forgotten that.
PUA, full of crap, as so often.
Oh, thanks for finding and posting this. It explains these threads that pop up here from time to time. Are they also the ones who say there's no point in worrying about herpes, because sooner or later, everyone's going to have it anyway? PUA blogs remind me of the rumor-mill source of sex info in middle school. All kinds of crazy info circulated in the absence of a reliable source.
1. It's a virus, it does not care who it's host is, it just wants a warm body to breed inside. It does not discriminate. It does not know, nor care what race, sex, or sexual preference you have.
2. It is easier for women to catch it from male to female, just because of the nature of how things are "deposited" inside them.
3. It is true, that for straight men, who do not use IV drugs, or have sex with other males, are on the lowest end of the chart for catching it. But it is not impossible. Just a little harder due to the mechanics of things.
4. To answer the OP question, yes, I know of two friends who caught it and they were straight, non drug users, one was married and messed around on the side. He caught it, wife divorced him and she did not catch it. I knew a high ranking Navy official who said on every single West Pac tour during the late 80's early 90's that 6-8 sailors per trip would contact the virus from having sex with prostitutes in Thailand.
So while it is harder for straight males, who do not use IV drugs, or have sex with other men, it is not impossible.
Some of those prostitutes probably were male or ladyboys (As though the soldiers would admit the AIDS came from acts despised by the military.)
Ruth said something about AIDs being transmitted in nursing homes. So? The elderly have weakened immune systems and probably get cuts more easily. Most men are at extremely low risk for AIDS from heterosexual intercourse.
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Just noting that because I think it's important to the discussion. I have heard of a "famous" person (and not just rumor, though I don't know them personally , him I should say, 1 man), who did get the virus from his girlfriend. I think it's possible though not probable.
(As though the soldiers would admit the AIDS came from acts despised by the military.)
