Good News On Hiv?

[Terse]

Two items:

 

The first is UN Report from the BBC

 

The number of new HIV infections and deaths from Aids are falling globally, according to new statistics from the UN's programme on HIV/Aids.

There are now signs the epidemic is declining, it says, however, stigma and discrimination continue to cause problems for the estimated 33m people living with HIV.

Last year there were 2.6m new HIV infections.

This is down almost 20% since the peak of the Aids epidemic in 1999.

In 2009, 1.8m died from Aids-related illnesses, down from 2.1m in 2004.

The report says rates of treatment using anti-retroviral drugs have risen from 700,000 in 2004 to over 5m people in 2009.

Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the region most affected by the epidemic, with around 70% of all new HIV infections occurring here.

But infection rates are falling, particularly in South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.

 

The second is a Guardian report about The Drug Truvada

 

A once-daily pill can protect men at high risk of HIV from becoming infected, a ground-breaking study shows today.

The international trial, which has generated much excited anticipation, provides proof for the first time that pills used to treat HIV/Aids can also prevent it. Campaigners greeted the results, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, with enthusiasm, suggesting that they could fundamentally change the approach to preventing HIV in some groups of people.

The findings are good news for men who have sex with men, the population in whom the drugs were tried. There were 43.8% fewer HIV infections among those who took Truvada, the once-a-day tablet containing two drugs, emtricitabine and tenofovir, than among those who did not. The protective effect was much greater in those who took the tablets consistently: it reduced the risk of those who took it 90% or more of the time by 72.8%.

 

It is difficult, as others have pointed out, to know how much dependence can be placed on media coverage of such things but this, surely, must mark a considerable step forward.

[cheesypeas]

Two items:

 

The first is UN Report from the BBC

 

The number of new HIV infections and deaths from Aids are falling globally, according to new statistics from the UN's programme on HIV/Aids.

There are now signs the epidemic is declining, it says, however, stigma and discrimination continue to cause problems for the estimated 33m people living with HIV.

Last year there were 2.6m new HIV infections.

This is down almost 20% since the peak of the Aids epidemic in 1999.

In 2009, 1.8m died from Aids-related illnesses, down from 2.1m in 2004.

The report says rates of treatment using anti-retroviral drugs have risen from 700,000 in 2004 to over 5m people in 2009.

Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the region most affected by the epidemic, with around 70% of all new HIV infections occurring here.

But infection rates are falling, particularly in South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.

 

The second is a Guardian report about The Drug Truvada

 

A once-daily pill can protect men at high risk of HIV from becoming infected, a ground-breaking study shows today.

The international trial, which has generated much excited anticipation, provides proof for the first time that pills used to treat HIV/Aids can also prevent it. Campaigners greeted the results, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, with enthusiasm, suggesting that they could fundamentally change the approach to preventing HIV in some groups of people.

The findings are good news for men who have sex with men, the population in whom the drugs were tried. There were 43.8% fewer HIV infections among those who took Truvada, the once-a-day tablet containing two drugs, emtricitabine and tenofovir, than among those who did not. The protective effect was much greater in those who took the tablets consistently: it reduced the risk of those who took it 90% or more of the time by 72.8%.

 

It is difficult, as others have pointed out, to know how much dependence can be placed on media coverage of such things but this, surely, must mark a considerable step forward.

 

And now of course the Pope has said it's ok for men to wear condoms whilst shagging each other, that will help.

Can't help thinking he's missed a trick with hetrosexuals though.

[La_Dolce_Vita]

His comments were not made in respect in gay men, as far as I know.

[Chinahand]

I'm not sure what he is really saying. Seems to me he's waffling when put on the spot, but as long as the Curia don't suddenly reinterpret it, it looks good news!

 

The Vatican has clarified Pope Benedict XVI's comments on condoms, saying their use by men and women to prevent HIV could be an act of "responsibility".

 

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said he had personally asked the Pope if there was a serious, important problem in the choice of the masculine over the feminine.

 

"He told me 'No'," Fr Lombardi said. "The problem is this... It's the first step of taking responsibility, of taking into consideration the risk of the life of another with whom you have a relationship."

 

"This is if you're a woman, a man, or a transsexual," he added.

 

Despite this shift, the Vatican still believes that changing attitudes to sexuality is the proper way to combat HIV/Aids.

 

In the book, the Pope says that condoms are "not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection".

 

Condoms are only one part of the way to deal with HIV, I think all campaigners would say that. But that is very different from saying they have NO part. Touch wood the Vatican has stopped saying that.

[Moghrey Mie]

I'm not sure what he is really saying. Seems to me he's waffling when put on the spot, but as long as the Curia don't suddenly reinterpret it, it looks good news!

 

The Vatican has clarified Pope Benedict XVI's comments on condoms, saying their use by men and women to prevent HIV could be an act of "responsibility".

 

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said he had personally asked the Pope if there was a serious, important problem in the choice of the masculine over the feminine.

 

"He told me 'No'," Fr Lombardi said. "The problem is this... It's the first step of taking responsibility, of taking into consideration the risk of the life of another with whom you have a relationship."

 

"This is if you're a woman, a man, or a transsexual," he added.

 

Despite this shift, the Vatican still believes that changing attitudes to sexuality is the proper way to combat HIV/Aids.

 

In the book, the Pope says that condoms are "not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection".

 

Condoms are only one part of the way to deal with HIV, I think all campaigners would say that. But that is very different from saying they have NO part. Touch wood the Vatican has stopped saying that.

[Moghrey Mie]

I'm not sure what he is really saying. Seems to me he's waffling when put on the spot, but as long as the Curia don't suddenly reinterpret it, it looks good news!

 

The Vatican has clarified Pope Benedict XVI's comments on condoms, saying their use by men and women to prevent HIV could be an act of "responsibility".

 

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said he had personally asked the Pope if there was a serious, important problem in the choice of the masculine over the feminine.

 

"He told me 'No'," Fr Lombardi said. "The problem is this... It's the first step of taking responsibility, of taking into consideration the risk of the life of another with whom you have a relationship."

 

"This is if you're a woman, a man, or a transsexual," he added.

 

Despite this shift, the Vatican still believes that changing attitudes to sexuality is the proper way to combat HIV/Aids.

 

In the book, the Pope says that condoms are "not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection".

 

Condoms are only one part of the way to deal with HIV, I think all campaigners would say that. But that is very different from saying they have NO part. Touch wood the Vatican has stopped saying that.

 

 

Unfortunately the pope, like Rowan Williams, seems to have problems conveying his thoughts in simple language. Maybe they teach them to fudge things at theological college.

[Terse]

FFS!

 

Two reports appear to show progress towards dealing with the AIDS epidemic, and what happens when I put a link to them for further discussion?

That's right - the thread gets hijacked to have a go at the pope and the RC church!

No wonder people can't take these forums seriously when dickheads do things like that!

[spook]

HIV AIDS is a preventable condition. All people need do is lead decent lives and keep away from those who don’t and they are exceedingly unlikely to face any risk from it.

 

The very few who become accidentally infected are unfortunate, but the root cause of HIV AIDS is always immorality.

 

The wages of sin are death. Romans 6:23, and especially Isaiah 3:9 which reads “The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide [it] not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.”

 

I suppose most people know what Sodom was infamous for.

 

When one stops and considers the groups who were first infected with the plague (?) and who form the majority of those now infected one can’t help but wonder if it is a plague or a message and a warning.

[When Skies Are Grey]

Oh fuck off....seriously....YOU are an infection.....in to nearly every thread with your pompous moralising.

 

You sir, and your ilk, are the true plague on our society.

[tonythetash]

FFS!

 

Two reports appear to show progress towards dealing with the AIDS epidemic, and what happens when I put a link to them for further discussion?

That's right - the thread gets hijacked to have a go at the pope and the RC church!

No wonder people can't take these forums seriously when dickheads do things like that!

 

Quite agree!

Every topic on this forum seems to go the same way.

Having said that the hypocrite in me wonders why its taken so long fong for the RC to say 'condoms are ok', next they'll be saying priests shouldnt b*ggEr thier quiorboys!

[spook]

Oh fuck off....seriously....YOU are an infection.....in to nearly every thread with your pompous moralising.

 

You sir, and your ilk, are the true plague on our society.

 

No, Sir. It is the lack of my “Ilk” and the failure of my “Ilk” to speak out against immorality and sin that is what is wrong with the West and judging by the outlandish views expressed here especially so on the Isle of Man.

 

When I was told of this forum some weeks ago I was warned that I would be shocked at the attitudes, morality, and sinfulness that I would encounter.

 

That I would face no end of ridicule and insult and being dismissed as all manner of things other than be accepted as a right thinking decent living Christian and an example of someone living a good Christian and God Fearing life.

 

I had no idea of the extent that all of this would prove to be true.

 

The thing that concerns me most is the absence of support from other Christians and more importantly why this might be. Is it because I follow a politically incorrect Christianity rather than Methodism, Anglicanism, or any other organised church that is nominally Christian?

 

Or is it that my traditional “Fire and Brimstone and tell it like it is” is a bridge too far from their comfort zone?

 

Or is it, and this would be worst of all, that Christians on this forum are afraid to stand up for their beliefs and face ridicule and even hatred?

 

HIV AIDS IS a disease that came into our countries on the back of homosexuals and drug users, the same group who were and still are principally responsible for its propagation through the population as a whole where decent morality and right living is in such desperate short supply. To try to pretend otherwise is simply denying the obvious.

 

There may not be a cure for HIV AIDS, but there is a sure and certain prevention.

 

Live decent lives.

[When Skies Are Grey]

*sigh....we truly will never become enlightened beings whilst the iron first of "religion" strangles us.

 

You live your life and I shall live mine. I have a moral compass and I don't need an arcane tome to show me the direction it points.

[Chinahand]

When one stops and considers the groups who were first infected with the plague (?) and who form the majority of those now infected one can’t help but wonder if it is a plague or a message and a warning.

What - God hates hetrosexual Africans?

 

You are ignorant if you think AIDS is a homosexual disease. Certainly it was first recorded in Homosexuals in the US and the west, but those suffers have always been the tiny minority - there are 100s of thousands of hetrosexual victims for every homosexual sufferer.

 

AIDS had infected large numbers of African hetrosexuals many years prior to Gaetan Dugas became associated with Patient Zero, and they remain the majority still.

[spook]

Your statistics are wrong.

 

That aside promiscuous sex, sex outside of marriage, or adultery are all sure ways of HIV AIDS being propagated through a population. All immoral activities hence immorality is the conduit through which HIV AIDS flows. Live a decent life and mix with decent people and the probability of cotracting HIV AIDS is virtually nil.

[When Skies Are Grey]

Live a decent life and mix with decent people and the probability of cotracting HIV AIDS is virtually nil.

 

True.....fucking boring though!

 

One life, live it. Be mindful of the consequences and take responsbility for your own actions. That's all the commandments I need.