# What happened to the AIDS scare? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 17, 2013, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-aids-scare/658568 "2013-05-17T00:05:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-aids-scare/658568/41 "2013-05-20T05:52:08Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > > [@dtilque](#): > > > > That was my reading. But as I understand it, being gay is irrelevant to AIDS in Africa, since it’s commonly spread by hetero sex there. > > And everywhere else, for that matter. Actually the heterosexual transmission rate is especially high there because many men like women dry out their vaginas before sex, the action of delubricating it, and the lack of lubrication during sex cause small tears and inflamation, which allows HIV to enter. [Cite](http://sti.bmj.com/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=10448396) I suppose lubricationless anal sex is similarly risky. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-aids-scare/658568/42 "2013-05-20T16:17:29Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > Actually the heterosexual transmission rate is especially high there because many men like women dry out their vaginas before sex, the action of delubricating it, and the lack of lubrication during sex cause small tears and inflamation, which allows HIV to enter. > [Cite](http://sti.bmj.com/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=10448396) > > I suppose lubricationless anal sex is similarly risky. Despite breathless reporting on exotic sexual practices, the reality is that HIV in sub-Saharan Africa is spread by normal, unremarkable heterosexual contact. There are some high risk activities that are popular in some regions, but stuff like “dry sex” is far from universal. Even the theory that Africans have an unusual number of concurrent partners is losing steam. Low circumcision rates and high rates of other STDs are probably major factors. But mostly, the reason why some parts of Sub-Saharan Africa have high HIV rates is that HIV had a long time to spread before anyone seriously tried to stop it, leaving enough straight people HIV to make it entrenched. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-aids-scare/658568/43 "2013-05-20T17:07:56Z")
This has prompted me to want to re-read “The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS”, which came out around 1990 and was reissued with an epilogue several years later. > **[The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS: How a Tragedy Has Been Distorted by the Media and...](https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Heterosexual-AIDS-Distorted-Partisan/dp/0895267292)** > > The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS: How a Tragedy Has Been Distorted by the Media and Partisan Politics \[Fumento, Michael\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS: How a Tragedy Has Been Distorted by the Media... ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-aids-scare/658568/44 "2013-05-20T20:14:42Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > This has prompted me to want to re-read “The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS”, which came out around 1990 and was reissued with an epilogue several years later. > > [The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS: How a Tragedy Has Been Distorted by the Media and Partisan Politics: Fumento, Michael: 9780895267290: Amazon.com: Books](http://www.amazon.com/The-Myth-Heterosexual-AIDS-Distorted/dp/0895267292) No question, Michael Fumento was way ahead of everybody else on this subject. He also asserted something controversial twenty years ago that I fully believe will still happen: that Magic Johnson will be outed eventually (though, very likely, posthumously). Every sportswriter will tell you OFF the record that Magic was widely believed (if not known) to swing both ways. Several prominent ones, including Dave Kindred, admitted that to Fumento. But when Fumento asked, “Why not say so,” the writers invariably asked “What difference does it make how he got the virus?” Morally? No difference at all- Magic would still deserve all the support and compassion he could get. But Magic was held up widely as proof that AIDS was everybody’s problem and that we’re all equally at risk. That wasn’t true, and it still isn’t. Reporters clammed up because most of them are liberals who were happy to have an ostensibly straight poster boy. But I remain convinced that Magic will be uncloseted sooner or later. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-aids-scare/658568/45 "2013-05-21T01:35:06Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > No question, Michael Fumento was way ahead of everybody else on this subject. > > He also asserted something controversial twenty years ago that I fully believe will still happen: that Magic Johnson will be outed eventually (though, very likely, posthumously). > > Every sportswriter will tell you OFF the record that Magic was widely believed (if not known) to swing both ways. Several prominent ones, including Dave Kindred, admitted that to Fumento. But when Fumento asked, “Why not say so,” the writers invariably asked “What difference does it make how he got the virus?” > > Morally? No difference at all- Magic would still deserve all the support and compassion he could get. But Magic was held up widely as proof that AIDS was everybody’s problem and that we’re all equally at risk. That wasn’t true, and it still isn’t. > > Reporters clammed up because most of them are liberals who were happy to have an ostensibly straight poster boy. But I remain convinced that Magic will be uncloseted sooner or later. My brother told me that when Magic Johnson was doing sports commentary, he (Magic) said, “Look at all those beautiful bodies down there on that court!” and my brother said that was when he knew that Magic did not get AIDS from a woman. Remember the dentist who had numerous low-risk patients infected with AIDS, including one young woman who claimed to be a virgin? It’s now believed that this dentist was injecting his patients with his own blood, and deliberately infecting them this way. :eek: He’d been disciplined by his state board in the past for substance abuse issues. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-aids-scare/658568/46 "2013-05-21T21:39:40Z")
One of the other issues with AIDS in Africa is a simple one - the social disruption of urbanization and migrant workers. A large number of men leave home to get jobs, returning only occasionally to infect their wives. meanwhile, you have a very large group of men being serviced by a pool of prostitutes, often in a concentrated urban setting, as happens anywhere this socio-economic situation evolves. No surprise if the disease spreads easily in this situation. The other statistic is that some studies suggest uncircumcised men (many Africans are not) are five times as likely to become infected. The inside of the natural foreskin, like the vagina, is a soft tissue susceptible to small tears and abrasions. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-aids-scare/658568/47 "2013-05-22T04:08:49Z")
A friend of mine has AIDS, which has been controlled with drugs for several years. He got it because he didn’t like wearing condoms, and he had unprotected sex with tons of people. He doesn’t know precisely who he got it from. Nowadays he still has sex, but always wears a condom. I asked him, “What if the other guy has AIDS, too? Would you have unprotected sex then?” His answer was no. His reason was that there are some people who deliberately try to become infected, either for the ‘glamor’ or because of a mistaken impression that if they get HIV/AIDS, that the government will support them and they’ll never have to work again. He doesn’t trust that a random hookup is telling him the truth about their status. I’ve seen his drug cocktail, btw. He takes a bunch of pills everyday. No walk in the park – not only does he take pills for the AIDS itself, but also anti-diarrheals to control the diarrhea his medication gives him, other pills to induce an appetite because his medication kills his appetite, and so forth and so on. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-aids-scare/658568/48 "2013-05-22T08:15:44Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > One of the other issues with AIDS in Africa is a simple one - the social disruption of urbanization and migrant workers. A large number of men leave home to get jobs, returning only occasionally to infect their wives. meanwhile, you have a very large group of men being serviced by a pool of prostitutes, often in a concentrated urban setting, as happens anywhere this socio-economic situation evolves. No surprise if the disease spreads easily in this situation. In some parts of sub-saharan Africa there is also a common phenomenon that researchers call transactional sex, distinguishing it from prostitution (or at least the type of prostitution you’re thinking of). It’s what would be known as a sugar daddy relationship here. Teenage girls exchange sex with one man, or at most a small number of men, sometimes for survival but often simply out of desire for a more consumerist lifestyle. These girls are at _very_ high risk of HIV - perhaps even more so than sex workers, at least where the latter are served by good outreach programmes and/or have some degree of organisation/professionalisation. > [@](#): > > The other statistic is that some studies suggest uncircumcised men (many Africans are not) are five times as likely to become infected. The inside of the natural foreskin, like the vagina, is a soft tissue susceptible to small tears and abrasions. The foreskin also contains a specific type of cell that is particularly HIV-friendly. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-aids-scare/658568/49 "2013-05-22T10:52:01Z")
Bug parties or two infected people having unprotected sex could lead to a mutation of the virus which could produce a far more dangerous bug. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-aids-scare/658568/51 "2013-05-22T15:03:49Z")
> [@brownsugar](#): > > There is still a small scare hidden some where in the heart of every human being ,but once they came to know that there is a vaccine available for aids .and it become very common ,but after the government announced that there is no such things as vaccine at it again bean a night mare for the peoples I ran this through Derp Translate, and it said you’re saying there was an HIV vaccine that was very common, but then the government denied it existed, and for the first time in modern history people believed them? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-aids-scare/658568.md?page=2)