Not to derail an otherwise admirable rant, but how do you know he wasn’t? How do you know when he was infected and what if any precautions he took both before and after that time?
PnP=Party and Play. Sex on drugs.
BB=Barebacking. Having unprotected sex (usually anal).
K-Hole=A dark reaction to having taken too much ketamine. (I think…)
I am really really afraid to ask this because that is my name IRL but, what is that or what does it mean?
That’s crystal meth.
Well, the progression from initial HIV infection to the opportunistic infection that signals the onset of AIDS usually takes 5 to 10 years, so let’s say that Andy Bell was infected in 1988–that’s still way ahead of when everyone knew about safer sex. As for precautions, it’s possible the rubber broke or that he was infected by a blood transfusion, but the most likely source of infection is barebacking.
Maybe this is a tad off topic, but it seems the most appropriate forum, nonetheless:
Gay guys: I love you. Really. You are fabulous, and loads of fun to hang around with…except for one thing. And it’s driving me nuts.
Stop making my wife sing Adelaide’s Lament at parties.
You did it again just the other night, at that otherwise wonderful holiday party for the board and guests. Look, it’s a cute song (in an old-fashioned and obsolescently sexist sort of way), and hearing Mrs. Loopy ham it up with her faux Noo Yawk accent certainly can be entertaining…in moderation. But, y’know, I think I’ve heard that tune about fifteen times now, and I think you all have heard it about fifteen thousand times. She and I are both sick of it! What the hell is it about that song? I mean, it’s a solo, even; does it need an impromptu four part harmony with piano and flute accompanyment (I am not making that up)? If you’re going to goad her into standing in the middle of the room to sing to you all, couldn’t you think of something else from the Broadway rep. that doesn’t involve neurotic she-ditzes? I mean, Mrs. Loopy and Paul did that wonderful duet of “Make Our Garden Grow”, with John on the piano, and a simply splendid ad-hoc chorus for the finale. Wasn’t that pretty cool (not to mention less stressful, sharing the spotlight)? Can’t we end her public anxiety on a high note before one of you gives in to your temptation and screams out “ADELAIDE! ADELAIDE! ADELAIDE!” We can’t take it anymore. You throw the best parties, honest, but enough is enough. No more Adelaide? O.K.? Please? Pretty please?
Lord, how I hate meth. I’m not a superstitious person, my rational side calmly refuses to believe that a chemical can be evil, having no will, no soul, etc. But meth is evil. I haven’t the slightest doubt it was cooked up in a Nazi chem lab by Satanists (and not the nice, pagan Satanists - the nasty ones…).
Ten thousand years ago, when I was younger and more foolish, the “counterculture” had basicly two drugs - pot and acid. You could trust the people you related to, violence in drug matters was unheard of, the most drastic calamity was to find yourself completely out of peanut butter when the munchies struck.
And then meth. All of a sudden people were carrying weapons, getting skinny and anxious, the instant rapport with a stranger darkened by suspicion - not he might be narc and bust you, he might be a speed freak and kill you. And it never fucking died, it kept on and on. God invented weed, and had the good sense to insure that it would grow just about everywhere but Antarctica, because penguins are born stoned.
But meth… Ick.
But, always curious about jargon, argot, slang…why “Tina”?
It’s short for Christina. (Link talks about drug slang and as such may be NSFW). Christina being derived from Crystal. It’s drugs. You’re not gonna get a lot of sense out of it. Or the people that use it.
o/ *A poy-son could develop a co-wold...*o/
Sorry. I’m listening to a Broadway-themed webcast here and that was just on before I read the thread…
You know better than this. “HIV+” does not equal “AIDS.” As far as we know Bell doesn’t have AIDS; he has HIV.
OK, so you have no idea what Bell was or wasn’t doing regarding safer sex either before or after his infection. Since you don’t know maybe you shouldn’t include him in your “stop with the irresponsible behavour fags” rant.
He seems to understand it just fine.
Someone gets infected with HIV. Then, several years down the road, he gets an “oppurtunistic infection” (as gobear puts it). He gets something like pneumonia or whatever. Then he’ll start getting flus and other sicknesses that are signaling the onset of AIDS. IOW, they are showing he immune system is starting to become deficient.
So gobear was saying that there is 5-10 years between the time a person is infected with HIV, to the time he infected with some disease that an otherwise strong immune system would have fought off. The infection of this newly aquired disease is a signal of the onset of AIDS. Not saying he has AIDS. Just that it’s starting. Otherwise, he would not have gotten that infection. A strong immune system would have fought it off. So AIDS is starting to present itself.
You both pretty much seem to understand this. I think you just misunderstood his statement.
He developed PCP in 1998; that and KS are the signals of the onset of AIDS. HIV is the virus; AIDS is the end-stage of the disease HIV causes. Proper scientific terminology ought to relabel AIDS “tertiary HIV infection.”
He got infected; clearly, he wasn’t doing enough.
Okay, stop the music. I agreed with pretty much the whole OP, but you know as well as I do that unless you 1) never have sex and/or 2) wrap yourself completely in Saran Wrap à la Jeffrey, you are never at zero risk for contracting HIV. Just like you aren’t at zero risk of getting creamed by a car if you decide to cross the street. Someone can take all reasonable precautions and still get infected with HIV.
Oy! J’ai la grippe!
Well, for one thing, I spelled “opportunistic” correctly. Second, “opportunistic infection” is the term used for diseases that afflict an HIV+ person that would be shrugged off by a healthy immune system.
As I said earlier, AIDS is not separate form HIV infection, it’s just the end stage of the same illness. Even though a person can be asymptomatic for years, HIV is not dormant, but working to undermine the immune system. The stages run like this
Exposure
2-4 weeks later: fever and chills indicating HIV infection, often mistaken for the flu or mono. Some people don’t get very ill or have barely noticeable symptoms.
3-6 months: detectable HIV antibodies
6 months-8 or 10 years: chronic, asymptomatic HIV infection
Then end-stage infection with full-blown symptoms, AIDS. The formal diagnosis is made when the T-cell count hits 200 or fewer.
Granted, which is why I left the door open that maybe he was playing safe and got hit anyhow. Not likely, but possible. Maybe he was just unlucky.
But I live in the DC area with one of the highest HIV infection rates in the country, and I’ve seen (in my single days) waaayyyy too much misbehavior to really buy the likelihood of a wily virus getting past vigilant precautions in every single case.
We’re never going to get this disease under control until we firmly din it in everone’s heads that You. Are. Responsible. For. Your Health.
Do not bareback. EVER.
Do not trick when stoned or high because that might lead to lack of caution.
Know your partners.
If you are lying on your stomach with your butt to the door of your bathhouse cubicle and you don’t even see the face of the men fucking you, let alone check to see if he’s wearing a condom, don’t come crying to me when you get infected.
If you’re letting guys come in your mouth during sex, your infection is your own fault.
I’m very tired of gay men acting as if Ronald Reagan or George Bush infected them with HIV, instead of getting infected through their own irresponsibility. That’s right, I said it,
“Irresponsibility”
Until we start censuring irresponsible behavior instead of coddling people who put themselves and others at risk, we’re doomed to see ever increasing rates of infection.
I’m having an extremely hard time taking this rule seriously because I’ll bet that intoduced chemicals are a major reason that people throw caution to the wind.
Perhaps people would be safer to hang on to their car keys and go straight home alone when getting stoned or drunk.
I had not heard that he had PCP. That does indeed mean he has AIDS per the standard definition.
Blame the victim much?
Yeah, agreed.
Good post.