# HIV/AIDS and Africa **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 11, 2002, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-aids-and-africa/97459 "2002-03-11T03:30:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Efrem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@Efrem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Efrem)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2002, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-aids-and-africa/97459/1 "2002-03-11T03:30:52Z")
Cecil forgot about the biggest sufferers of HIV/AIDS in the world. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 28.1 million cases of HIV/AIDS with 2.3 million deaths in 2001. It has brought down the life expectancy of many African countries to below 40 years, with some having over 20% infected between the ages of 15-49. I am not pleased by Cecil’s omission. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2002, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-aids-and-africa/97459/2 "2002-03-11T03:58:10Z")
Don’t forget to link to the column! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Efrem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@Efrem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Efrem)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2002, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-aids-and-africa/97459/3 "2002-03-11T04:28:45Z")
Sorry :eek: [Update: What are your chances of getting HIV?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/020301.html) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Lao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dr.Lao](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Lao)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2002, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-aids-and-africa/97459/4 "2002-03-11T07:04:38Z")
The article wasn’t about any AIDS sufferers. In fact, it was about non-infected people and what their odds of infect are given certain circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2002, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-aids-and-africa/97459/5 "2002-03-11T20:30:09Z")
This particular Straight Dope column meant to address the risk of HIV acquisition in the US. The article Cecil refered to was calculating odds of getting HIV within specific populations and from certain behaviors _in the US_. Things would be very different in some parts of Africa where HIV is prevalent and still exploding and where transmission trends are somewhat different. A number of recent articles have described the epidemic in other parts of the world and are available at [www.cdc.gov](http://www.cdc.gov) and [http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu](http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu) That was not the focus of this column, though. ---
**Author:** ![Efrem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@Efrem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Efrem)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2002, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-aids-and-africa/97459/6 "2002-03-12T15:21:56Z")
Thanks **JillGat** for the info, I just thought it would be nice if Cecil had mentioned it. I don’t think he has addressed this issue whenever the HIV/AIDS subject came up? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2002, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-aids-and-africa/97459/7 "2002-03-14T07:07:01Z")
efrem: like me, you’re Canadian. By now you should be used to news articles and columns that focus exclusively on the U.S. If Cecil had to write for a global audience, putting in every regional variant, his columns would be 6000 words long, not 600. ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2002, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-aids-and-africa/97459/8 "2002-03-14T23:53:46Z")
Bryan, Are you familiar with the many US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention programs in Africa? As an HIV/AIDS Epidemiologist in the U.S., I often read about and sometimes present on the HIV situation in Africa. Africa was not the topic of this column. If we get an appropriate question about Africa that involves telling the public which it doesn’t already know - that, tragically, parts of Africa are being decimated by this epidemic - then perhaps Cecil will write that column. Not to be defensive (or to suggest that everything that _could be_, **is** being done), but are you suggesting that Canada has a more active role in preventing/treating HIV disease in Africa than the US does? ---
**Author:** ![Mhernan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mhernan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mhernan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-aids-and-africa/97459/9 "2003-12-12T21:44:05Z")
The dorrendouas numbers used by Jillcat, Brian EkershEfrem,Lao,and EJsgirl are, by the,selves destabalizing as the assumption of an HIV /AIDS connection has been unambiguously disproved by the intense effort of the so-called Perth Group (including Papadopolous and Val Turner) that have been monitoring AIDS since the early panic stages before 1981 and Luc Montainier’s publication and gallos the following year. ---
**Author:** ![Mhernan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mhernan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mhernan)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2003, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-aids-and-africa/97459/10 "2003-12-16T06:52:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Efrem \* > \*\*Cecil forgot about the biggest sufferers of HIV/AIDS in the world. > > Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 28.1 million cases of HIV/AIDS with 2.3 million deaths in 2001. It has brought down the life expectancy of many African countries to below 40 years, with some having over 20% infected between the ages of 15-49. > > I am not pleased by Cecil’s omission. \*\* Efrem, Every thing you say , yoiu say with conviction. Can you tell us what sceintifiv proof (publiched documents) that prove what you sasy? ---
**Author:** ![Mhernan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mhernan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mhernan)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2003, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-aids-and-africa/97459/11 "2003-12-16T07:00:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JillGat \* > \*\*Bryan, > Are you familiar with the many US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention programs in Africa? As an HIV/AIDS Epidemiologist in the U.S., I often read about and sometimes present on the HIV situation in Africa. Africa was not the topic of this column. If we get an appropriate question about Africa that involves telling the public which it doesn’t already know - that, tragically, parts of Africa are being decimated by this epidemic - then perhaps Cecil will write that column. Not to be defensive (or to suggest that everything that _could be_, **is** being done), but are you suggesting that Canada has a more active role in preventing/treating HIV disease in Africa than the US does? \*\* Duesberg cites overwhelming scientific proof that the oportunistic diseases of AIDS are grossly out of distributional balance between African and US forms of AIDS. IS this a true statement? JillCat you speak as if you know. Some clainm scientific proof is nonexisten and that HIV has never been isolated and idenjtified tot he exclusion of all other organic entiities that HIV causes AIDS. Do you have thr proof? Are you just a messanger, scientist or propagandist in you function in the AIDS machinery? ---
**Author:** ![Mhernan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mhernan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mhernan)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2003, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-aids-and-africa/97459/12 "2003-12-16T07:05:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Efrem \* > \*\*Thanks **JillGat** for the info, I just thought it would be nice if Cecil had mentioned it. I don’t think he has addressed this issue whenever the HIV/AIDS subject came up? \*\* Interesting statement Efrem. What scientific proof could lyou let us us in on that proves HIV causes AIDS? I am asking for something published. So Cecil displeases you for not including issues you think he should have included, what are those? Scientific or political issues? What causes AIDS Efrem, do you know? ---
**Author:** ![Mhernan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mhernan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mhernan)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2003, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-aids-and-africa/97459/13 "2003-12-16T07:09:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JillGat \* > \*\*This particular Straight Dope column meant to address the risk of HIV acquisition in the US. The article Cecil refered to was calculating odds of getting HIV within specific populations and from certain behaviors _in the US_. Things would be very different in some parts of Africa where HIV is prevalent and still exploding and where transmission trends are somewhat different. A number of recent articles have described the epidemic in other parts of the world and are available at [www.cdc.gov](http://www.cdc.gov) and [http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu](http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu) > That was not the focus of this column, though. \*\* Jillcat, can you tell us what causes AIDS? Is it HIV that causes AIDS? Has HIV been isolated to the exclusion of all other organic entities? Where is the proof in the form of published scientific papers? ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2003, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-aids-and-africa/97459/14 "2003-12-16T12:18:01Z")
**Mhernan** , you seem to be playing one tune, over and over and over. That’s borrrrrrrrrring as hell to the rest of us. You got a point to make, make it, once and then stop and wait for answers. No one is going to want to respond to your forty-three repetitions of the same question. They’re just going to ignore you. You come across sounding like a four year old, repeating something over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over … See how annoying it is? You will interpret silence as support for your position, of course, so I’m letting you know not to take silence as agreement. In this case, it’s probably boredom. If you want to stay here and learn and contribute, then learn to sing different songs once in a while. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2003, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-aids-and-africa/97459/15 "2003-12-16T14:18:44Z")
[He went here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=229569)