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Is there a "conspiracy" of silence about AIDS transmission? Are all of us part of this "conspiracy"?

Lumpenproletariat

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---- "Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts."
The risk of contracting HIV through unprotected receptive anal sex is almost 20 times greater than the HIV risk associated with vaginal intercourse.

http://www.irinnews.org/report/93032/hiv-aids-anal-sex-hiv-risk-misunderstood-among-heterosexuals

This topic is nasty, but the facts are clear that anal sex is a far more risky behavior than vaginal sex as a cause of AIDS transmission. Every source on this subject agrees with the above quote.

And yet this fact is being suppressed by AIDS workers and by those engaged in efforts to eradicate AIDS. The rate of AIDS transmission is far greater because this fact is being suppressed by those engaged in the war against AIDS.

In Africa there is a crusade to promote condom use for prevention, and yet a much more effective measure would be avoidance of anal sex.

The above webpage shows the extreme degree of misinformation among AIDS workers in Africa:

“What people preach out there, it’s just vaginal sex - not information on anal [sex],” said a young woman from Salgaa, Kenya, who was quoted in the research. “So somebody thinks, ‘if I do [sex] this other way, then I will not get HIV.’”

Even more worrying was that research showed healthcare workers often held similar views, and some incorrectly believed HIV was only present in vaginal fluid. The virus is, in fact, also present in male sperm and blood.

“Me, I do not want to practice vaginal sex because that is the highest [risk] sex that transmits HIV, so it is a belief… that non-vaginal sex does not transmit HIV,” one Kenyan healthcare worker reported.

A nurse in Malaba, Uganda, said: “As you go and have sex vaginally you can get HIV, but these other methods, they do not expose you [to HIV].”

So these healthcare workers are saying exactly the opposite of the truth about the risk of anal sex. Not only are Africans being told nothing about the far higher risk from anal sex, but are being misled into believing anal sex is safer or risk-free.

So then, why is this misinformation taking place and why is nothing being done to educate Africans and other high-risk populations about the much higher risk of anal sex behavior, which would lead to the desired result of a great reduction in AIDS cases?

This is an example of censorship by the general population, not just those in high positions of power, but among average low-level common people. Everyone seems to be complicit in the furtherance of this deception and suppression of the truth.

The explanation must be: We humans generally have agreed, perhaps tacitly, to a conspiracy of silence about this, because we apparently believe that sometimes it is best to lie to each other about certain matters because it is in the public interest.

We want Africans and poor populations generally to refrain from reproducing, no matter what it takes to get them to do this, and we are willing to in effect lie to them or mislead them into believing falsehoods in order to get them to control their reproducing behavior.

When it comes to lying or deceiving people in order to manipulate them to do what we want, the overriding principle is that the end justifies the means. It's obvious that this is what virtually everyone believes, no matter what they preach to the contrary.

Is it in the best interest of future human welfare to lie to poor people worldwide about AIDS transmission and encourage them believe that anal sex is no riskier, or is even less risky, than vaginal sex?

And is it therefore dangerous or a threat to future human welfare to allow the truth to be told to them (that anal sex is 20 times riskier), and should this truth be suppressed for the public good (as it is currently being suppressed with apparent approval from everyone)?

Is this an example of a dangerous topic that should not be discussed and even should be banned?

If the truth about this were told to poor populations, thus leading to a significant reduction in AIDS transmission and prevention of millions of cases of AIDS, would that end up being a disaster for our future, because of the inevitable new population explosion that would result and which must be prevented at all cost?
 
I have three different reactions to your OP:

1) some people seem to think only vaginal sex carries a HIV transmission risk. That surprises me, considering AIDS origin as "the gay disease", but that might be my age showing, after all this was now one generation ago. That's clearly something that needs greater education.

2) your insistance that we teach that anal sex is very more risky. I don't agree. Not that I want the fact hidden, I've no problem with it being widely available, but I don't think we need to highlight that in a global educational outreach that must be kept simple. People generally walk out from such educational initiative with only a couple of messages left in their brains. I'd rather not blur the "always wear a condom" message with a "anal sex is the devil" one - that would run the risk of returning the perception of AIDS to "the gay disease", and we need heterosexual people to protect themselves instead of thinking "I'm okay because I only do it the bible/koran approved way".

3) the conspiracy. That's totally out there for me. I agree with Hanlon's razor, never assumer ill intent when a mistake would suffice. For this situation, the combination of the efforts to dislabel AIDS from "the gay disease" and get heterosexuals to protect themselves from the 80s-90s plus the general religious/traditionnal insistence on vaginal virginity leading people to think that doing it via the backdoor is the acceptable mean before marriage, plus all the "AIDS are god punishment for sins" theories out there, are enough to explain how some less educated people could end with the belief that only vaginal sex matters for AIDS prevention.
 
This topic is nasty, but the facts are clear that anal sex is a far more risky behavior than vaginal sex as a cause of AIDS transmission. Every source on this subject agrees with the above quote.

And yet this fact is being suppressed by AIDS workers and by those engaged in efforts to eradicate AIDS. The rate of AIDS transmission is far greater because this fact is being suppressed by those engaged in the war against AIDS.
For starters, health care professionals do not speak of "AIDS transmission" rather HIV contamination. AIDS being the acute phase of HIV sero positive and being HIV sero positive does not automatically mean having AIDS.

As to the vectors facilitating HIV contamination, they are universally applied as "unprotected, multiple and anonymous partners". Precisely via the exchanges of 2 specific bodily fluids, semen and vaginal fluids being both a favorable hosting environment for the virus.

In Africa there is a crusade to promote condom use for prevention, and yet a much more effective measure would be avoidance of anal sex.
As if the ratio of identified HIV sero positive individuals in Sub Sahara Africa is the product of any broad wide practice of anal sex versus vaginal intercourse. Do you have any data confirming that the route for HIV contamination in Sub Sahara Africa has been identified as anal sex?

The above webpage shows the extreme degree of misinformation among AIDS workers in Africa:

“What people preach out there, it’s just vaginal sex - not information on anal [sex],” said a young woman from Salgaa, Kenya, who was quoted in the research. “So somebody thinks, ‘if I do [sex] this other way, then I will not get HIV.’”

Even more worrying was that research showed healthcare workers often held similar views, and some incorrectly believed HIV was only present in vaginal fluid. The virus is, in fact, also present in male sperm and blood.

“Me, I do not want to practice vaginal sex because that is the highest [risk] sex that transmits HIV, so it is a belief… that non-vaginal sex does not transmit HIV,” one Kenyan healthcare worker reported.

A nurse in Malaba, Uganda, said: “As you go and have sex vaginally you can get HIV, but these other methods, they do not expose you [to HIV].”

So these healthcare workers are saying exactly the opposite of the truth about the risk of anal sex. Not only are Africans being told nothing about the far higher risk from anal sex, but are being misled into believing anal sex is safer or risk-free.

So then, why is this misinformation taking place and why is nothing being done to educate Africans and other high-risk populations about the much higher risk of anal sex behavior, which would lead to the desired result of a great reduction in AIDS cases?
So, essentially your contention here is that due to the incidence of Sub Sahara native health care workers who, for whatever reason are not mandated to take CEUs or Continuous Education Units to maintain their certification or license, "nothing is done to educate Africans and other high-risk populations" about the routes and vectors (to include anal sex) which present a high risk of sexually transmitted HIV contamination.

This is an example of censorship by the general population, not just those in high positions of power, but among average low-level common people. Everyone seems to be complicit in the furtherance of this deception and suppression of the truth.
Really? I am not aware of any "censorship by the general population" and "everyone" being "complicit in the furtherance of this deception and suppression of truth" considering that yearly I am mandated to take 12 CEUs including Infectious/Contagious Diseases Control and Prevention also covering HIV relying on data provided by the CDC. The obvious difference between me and those quoted Sub Sahara native health care workers is that they are not benefiting of such updated continuous education and most probably because they live and work in nations where governments are not actively invested in training and educating health care workers while mandating a set of conditions for them to maintain their certification or/and license.

The absurdity of your conclusion needs to be exposed considering that nations like Uganda persecute gay males and if any justification they would rely on to promote their anti gay policies it certainly would be to designate them as the culprits-to-be for their ratio of HIV infected population due to anal sex. It is possible you are unaware of the anti gay mentality predominant in several Sub Sahara nations. It certainly would not be to the benefit of the governments in anti gay Sub Sahara nations to adopt a politic of "censorship" since those governments thrive on persecuting gay males.

Usually when we speak of anal sex, the reference is about MSM (male on male sex) not heterosexual. That of course does not dismiss anal sex as being part of one of the sexual activities some heterosexuals will favor. To make a case that in Sub Sahara Africa the route of HIV transmission is somehow related to anal sex, one would have to demonstrate how Sub Sahara culture is somehow inclined to favor anal sex over vaginal intercourse or/and there is a high ratio of MSM in Sub Sahara Africa.

What we do know (which you appear not to know) is this :

http://data.unaids.org/pub/GlobalReport/2008/20080715_fs_ssa_en.pdf

with the predominant factor of women being the most HIV affected segment of the population and that due to ,

http://www.unaids.org/documents/20101123_FS_SSA_em_en.pdf

Key populations play a key role in the region’s HIV epidemics
Paid sex is an important factor in HIV epidemics in Western, Central and East Africa. An estimated 32% of
new HIV infections in Ghana, 14% in Kenya and 10% Uganda are linked to sex work

With women being most susceptible to be sex workers of course comes the other predominant factor of HIV transmission resulting from pregnancy and/or breastfeeding affecting their children.

Folks who are familiar with the cultural mentality in the majority of those nations would acknowledge that the mentality remains strongly patriarchal, causing women in general to be removed from access to education and health. Women in those nations are certainly not given any choice as to their sexuality and reproductive rights.

What you attempted to portray as some type of conspiracy (and failed to) is a phenomenon resulting from local governments still obstructing access to health and education and is certainly not the product of :

If the truth about this were told to poor populations, thus leading to a significant reduction in AIDS transmission and prevention of millions of cases of AIDS, would that end up being a disaster for our future, because of the inevitable new population explosion that would result and which must be prevented at all cost?
considering that anal sex in Sub Saharan cultures is NOT the reason why there is such a high ratio of HIV sero positive individuals. And resulting, if not placed on prophylactics, high ratio of fatalities when those HIV sero positive individuals reach the acute stage of AIDS.

The other consequence related to poor access to health care and early detection being a high number of non identified HIV sero positive. The typical scenario being such individuals reporting to a health care facility/clinic/dispensary by the time they have developed symptomatic ailments induced by the acute AIDS phase. Too little too late. For example in Ivory Coast, HIV detection relies on symptomatic ailments such as pneumonia and TB. As an aside, our French managed health care dispensaries in our ex colonies are certainly NOT engaging in some "silence" conspiracy. French nationals who manpower those dispensaries/clinics are fully trained and educated. What they are up against is what other European managed dispensaries/clinics are up against : the restricted access to education and health affecting rural and poverty stricken populations.





The explanation must be: We humans generally have agreed, perhaps tacitly, to a conspiracy of silence about this, because we apparently believe that sometimes it is best to lie to each other about certain matters because it is in the public interest.
Really? And may I ask which conspiracy of silence the CDC is guilty of in view of :

http://www.cdc.gov/std/life-stages-populations/STDFact-MSM.htm

Being a certified health care worker, I am not aware of any "conspiracy of silence" concocted by any official health department, administration, "high position of power" or the general population which includes all health care professionals and workers. What I am fully aware of though is the myth of the "gay disease" propagated in the US in the early 80's.

We want Africans and poor populations generally to refrain from reproducing, no matter what it takes to get them to do this, and we are willing to in effect lie to them or mislead them into believing falsehoods in order to get them to control their reproducing behavior.
Do you have any data supporting such speculation on your part? Preferably not from conspiracy theorists but reliable sources which can support your claim that there exist documentation/data demonstrating an organized First World movement including "high position" persons who would purposefully set out to control over population in the Third World by sending health care workers and professionals in those regions and nations instructing the native populations to have anal sex because it would be safe.

When it comes to lying or deceiving people in order to manipulate them to do what we want, the overriding principle is that the end justifies the means. It's obvious that this is what virtually everyone believes, no matter what they preach to the contrary.

Is it in the best interest of future human welfare to lie to poor people worldwide about AIDS transmission and encourage them believe that anal sex is no riskier, or is even less risky, than vaginal sex?
But you have made NO case that there is any worldwide conspiracy to "lie to poor people worldwide about AIDS transmission and encourage them believe that anal sex is no riskier, or even less risky, than vaginal sex".

My counter argumentation to expose the absurdity of your claim and resulting questions in the style of "have you stopped beating your wife" is based on local governments in those regions of Sub Sahara Africa obstructing access to education and health while also reflecting the traits of patriarchal mentalities who profoundly disadvantage women (at any age by the way) by maintaining them in a state where they have no say as to their sexuality and reproductive rights.

And is it therefore dangerous or a threat to future human welfare to allow the truth to be told to them (that anal sex is 20 times riskier), and should this truth be suppressed for the public good (as it is currently being suppressed with apparent approval from everyone)?
"apparent" and certainly your remark being the direct product of total lack of knowledge on your part as to the content of CDC data and other First World nations corresponding centers for infectious diseases control.

Is this an example of a dangerous topic that should not be discussed and even should be banned?
"this" is an actual example of how conspiracy theorists thrive on concocting absurd and profoundly uneducated conclusions. And speaking of "manipulating" I must add that their influence targets equally uneducated and very gullible people.

If the truth about this were told to poor populations, thus leading to a significant reduction in AIDS transmission and prevention of millions of cases of AIDS, would that end up being a disaster for our future, because of the inevitable new population explosion that would result and which must be prevented at all cost?
You have not made any clinically/medically supported case that anal sex has been a predominant factor in the high incidence of HIV sero positives in Sub Sahara Africa. How can you even dare speak of reduction when once more you have been speculating that anal sex has been the predominant contributing factor to HIV infections in Sub Sahara Africa?

This entire diatribe of yours is nonsensical.
 
Ok, Lumpenproletariat, we had the Fed conspiracy, now the AIDS conspiracy, let me guess what is next: chemtrails?
 
This topic is nasty, but the facts are clear that anal sex is a far more risky behavior than vaginal sex as a cause of AIDS transmission. Every source on this subject agrees with the above quote.

Agree--anal sex is a far bigger risk.

In Africa there is a crusade to promote condom use for prevention, and yet a much more effective measure would be avoidance of anal sex.

Disagree--the benefit of the condom is greater than the difference between anal and vaginal sex.


That doesn't excuse the misinformation that article is talking about.
 
The explanation must be: We humans generally have agreed, perhaps tacitly, to a conspiracy of silence about this, because we apparently believe that sometimes it is best to lie to each other about certain matters because it is in the public interest.
I wonder about 'must be' explanations, just as a matter of course.
I know the Catholic Church wields a lot of power in Africa. For a long time, they've been spreading disinformation about the effectiveness of condoms to fight the spread of HIV. These same health workers were spreading the word that condoms were no better than going in naked, not because the RCC wanted people to die of AIDS, but because the RCC was against the niggling little side effect of birth control offered by condoms.

I think it's far more likely that while the death rate has forced officials to talk about condoms, the RCC still has enough influence to forbid any discussion of sexual practices that the Vatican does not approve of. Anal sex, whether practiced by gay or straight couples, is a Catholic no-no. So they don't allow anyone to talk about how to do it safely, in the hope that if no one hears about it, no one will ever do it unsafely.
 
"Conspiracy of silence"???????? Who didn't know this? It's in the same locked curio box that holds the other occult secrets of the age: Tobacco is bad for you in all its forms.... Heroin can kill you.... Beets cause gout.... Shhhhhhh!
 
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Rather than a 'conspiracy of silence,' the issue is one of ignorance and because of ignorance, much misinformation even from health care workers. If you were to rank the risk of the sexual tramission of the HIV virus, analysis sex is riskier than vaginal sex which is riskier than oral sex. Oral sex still carries risk of transmitting the HIV virus.

From the article in the OP I gather that in some cultures, perhaps all cultures, virginity is valued and so people engage in behavior to preserve that (technical) virginity by engaging in oral or anal sex. This will prevent pregnancy but not the transmission of HIV or any other virus. Apparently even some nurses in some countries are so misinformed.

If there was universal abstinence from anal sex, HIV would still be transmitted through vaginal and oral sex.


The reason that HIV/AIDS was considered to be a gay disease is that was the group where it was first identified in the US. In Africa, dying from AIDS related disease looked like dying from many other infections. AIDS does not kill directly but weakens and ultimately destroys the immune system so that the patient becomes ill from and dies from infections which may be very minor in noninfected individuals.

Also: HIV is not carried in sperm but in semen, vaginal secretions, body fluids and blood products.
 
News Flash: People in areas of the world with very undeveloped educational systems are often very uneducated!

The message we need to get out is "Use a condom for all kinds of sex, not just vaginal sex".
 
Spontaneous generation has been out of favor for some time.

The friction resulting from anal sex will not produce HIV particles.

That being the case, I think it makes a lot more sense to focus on whether or not the person you're fucking has AIDS then the specifics of how you go about fucking them.
 
Spontaneous generation has been out of favor for some time.

The friction resulting from anal sex will not produce HIV particles.

That being the case, I think it makes a lot more sense to focus on whether or not the person you're fucking has AIDS then the specifics of how you go about fucking them.

Well when you solve how to do that, you'll stop the problem in it's tracks and earn the Nobel Prize. But somehow those hormones keep winning out and the various STDs keep on getting transmitted anyway... even the ones that are more obvious than HIV.
 
News Flash: People in areas of the world with very undeveloped educational systems are often very uneducated!

The message we need to get out is "Use a condom for all kinds of sex, not just vaginal sex".

Yes, but then we lose the chance to tell people that anal sex is icky, which is the real message.
 
News Flash: People in areas of the world with very undeveloped educational systems are often very uneducated!

The message we need to get out is "Use a condom for all kinds of sex, not just vaginal sex".

Yes, but then we lose the chance to tell people that anal sex is icky, which is the real message.

There appears to be a plethora of men out there who disagree with that assessment. I understand it's a pretty popular search term in the porn section of the interwebs...
 
Spontaneous generation has been out of favor for some time.

The friction resulting from anal sex will not produce HIV particles.
Let me suggest you pay attention to the data from the CDC :

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/transmission.html

Yes. In fact, having anal sex is the riskiest type of sex for getting or spreading HIV.
HIV can be found in the blood, semen (cum), preseminal fluid (pre-cum), or rectal fluid of a person infected with the virus. The bottom is at greater risk of getting HIV because the lining of the rectum is thin and may allow HIV to enter the body during anal sex, but the top is also at risk because HIV can enter through the opening of the penis or through small cuts, abrasions, or open sores on the penis. See the Prevention Q&As for more information.

Add to the above the reality that there is a higher risk of condom rupture/tearing with anal sex.

That being the case, I think it makes a lot more sense to focus on whether or not the person you're fucking has AIDS then the specifics of how you go about fucking them.
Considering that HIV sero positive implies testing in order to be detected, I am not sure how you suggest that every sexually active person would "focus on whether or not the person you're fucking" is HIV sero positive. Especially applied to the region of the world mentioned in the Op where HIV detection usually occurs as the result of symptomatic ailments the immune system cannot fight.
 
Yes, but then we lose the chance to tell people that anal sex is icky, which is the real message.

There appears to be a plethora of men out there who disagree with that assessment. I understand it's a pretty popular search term in the porn section of the interwebs...

There are also a plethora squared of women also disagree with that assessment.
 
News Flash: People in areas of the world with very undeveloped educational systems are often very uneducated!

The message we need to get out is "Use a condom for all kinds of sex, not just vaginal sex".

This.
 
Let me suggest you pay attention to the data from the CDC :

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/transmission.html

Yes. In fact, having anal sex is the riskiest type of sex for getting or spreading HIV.
HIV can be found in the blood, semen (cum), preseminal fluid (pre-cum), or rectal fluid of a person infected with the virus. The bottom is at greater risk of getting HIV because the lining of the rectum is thin and may allow HIV to enter the body during anal sex, but the top is also at risk because HIV can enter through the opening of the penis or through small cuts, abrasions, or open sores on the penis. See the Prevention Q&As for more information.

Add to the above the reality that there is a higher risk of condom rupture/tearing with anal sex.

That being the case, I think it makes a lot more sense to focus on whether or not the person you're fucking has AIDS then the specifics of how you go about fucking them.
Considering that HIV sero positive implies testing in order to be detected, I am not sure how you suggest that every sexually active person would "focus on whether or not the person you're fucking" is HIV sero positive. Especially applied to the region of the world mentioned in the Op where HIV detection usually occurs as the result of symptomatic ailments the immune system cannot fight.


Usually, actual AIDS is not that hard to notice: the person appears ill because they are quite ill. But I don't think The Paul meant that the person has AIDS. I think they meant HIV positive, which usually means HIV antibody positive because until recently, it wasn't possible to detect an HIV infection through screen prior to sero conversion.

Actually, a person is most infectious before sero conversion, when the virus is actively replicating. Prior to seroconversion, virus is rapidly replicating and the body's immune system hasn't kicked in to produce antibodies yet. A 4th generation HIV screen can catch antigen (from virus) before antibodies are produced. PCR can detect replicating virus earlier than a 4th generation HIV screen, but PCR is expensive and is not used as a screen.

There is simply no way of knowing, unless someone has disclosed that they are HIV positive what the HIV status of a prospective partner is. Certainly not 'in the moment,' although there are now at home rapid HIV screen tests (not 4th generation) and I've read that some times people will each take one, in front of the other, when it's someone new and before having sex. Which is great as far as it goes. It will catch an established infection (assuming testing was properly carried out) but you still won't catch the very early (and most infectious) infection.

The rule to follow is: Condoms! no matter what, no matter who, no matter the type of sex. Just use them!
 
Nope. Not Condoms.

We need to require STD testing, and have an online database that is easily accessible for sexually active individuals.

Require people report sexual partners, so we can track the spread of the disease. Give those who knowingly spread disease chemical castrations, 2nd offense- cut off the nerves to various erogenous zones.
 
News Flash: People in areas of the world with very undeveloped educational systems are often very uneducated!

The message we need to get out is "Use a condom for all kinds of sex, not just vaginal sex".

News Flash: People all over the world are ill informed and ignorant about HIV, AIDS (and the difference), as well as risk factors, prevention, etc. If ignorance and misinformation were confined to emerging nations without universal access to education, then in the U.S., we wouldn't have a situation where an estimated 20% of those infected with HIV are unaware of their HIV status.

So many things contribute to this situation, including homophobia, insistence on abstinence only sex education, religious and racial bigotry and frankly a lot of naïveté and denial as well as plain old provincialism.

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/risk/age/youth/index.html?s_cid=tw_drmermin-00186

Youth aged 13 to 24 accounted for an estimated 26% of all new HIV infections in the United States in 2010.
Most new HIV infections among youth occur among gay and bisexual males; there was a 22% increase in estimated new infections in this group from 2008 to 2010.
Almost 60% of youth with HIV in the United States do not know they are infected.

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/risk/age/olderamericans/
Fast Facts
Americans aged 50 and older have many of the same HIV risk factors as younger Americans.
Persons aged 55 and older accounted for 19% (217,300) of the estimated 1.1 million people living with HIV infection in the United States in 2010.
Older Americans are more likely than younger Americans to be diagnosed with HIV infection later in the course of their disease.
 
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