Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

amitguptaneedsyou.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 247 posts

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#181

Post by jacoblyles »

jarek wrote: post #100
cpher wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, this is not FUD. This is a proxy for a pattern of behavior (unprotected sex with the same sex, sharing of needles, etc). They ask you these questions as a primary filter for determining who is at risk of transferring a disease. We still don't know everything about how the disease is transferred, but we know which behavior patterns lead to it. And regarding the 1978 date, we still don't even know how long HIV can…

Your grand-grandparent post quite emphatically is FUD. Being MSM is positively correlated with a pattern of behaviour that elevates risk of HIV. So is being a college student. So is serial monogamy. So is being a heterosexual male. Singling out one of these while making no attempt to break down the diverse group MSM by further detailing high-risk behaviour and black-marking it with an ominous question like "Do you re…

I'm sorry if reality offends anyone's PC sensibilities, but in the US MSM account for 49% of HIV cases[1] despite accounting for a small percentage of the population. MSM are MUCH more likely to get HIV than, say, frat boys who casually hook up with a lot of females. I'm not sure if the ban is completely justified, but there is potential reason behind it.

[1]http://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/docs/fastfacts-msm-final...

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#182

Post by ramblerman »

haugstrup wrote: post #157
nostromo wrote: post #78

Since I'm still gay, I'm not allowed to help, no matter how many times you ask. I get why they do this and I shouldn't let it bother me, but emotionally it feels the same as if they just said, "Please become a donor, nohomo." edit: Of course I still wish the very best for Amit.

All Europeans are also banned from giving blood for forever. I'm a very recent transplant to the US from Denmark. I was a regular blood donor in Denmark and checked up on the US regulations before moving here. Even wrote the local blood bank because I didn't believe that the "if you've lived more than 5 years in Europe, you can't give blood ever" was for real. Sadly, the rule is very much real. The blood bank was als…

Well, as a European I'm Offended.

But seriously what's the motivation behind this?

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#183

Post by martey »

danielna wrote: post #177
nostromo wrote: post #78

Since I'm still gay, I'm not allowed to help, no matter how many times you ask. I get why they do this and I shouldn't let it bother me, but emotionally it feels the same as if they just said, "Please become a donor, nohomo." edit: Of course I still wish the very best for Amit.

Hi nostromo, I'm a Level II Volunteer for the National Marrow Donor Program, meaning I've had the training to coordinate and run drives locally. Let me preface my comment by saying I'm in no shape or form someone who is qualified to speak for the organization as a whole, as I've only become a volunteer in the last year. These thoughts are my own. In my limited experience being a part of marrow drives I've come across…

> The policy to not accept homosexuals as donors is created by some FDA(?) policy

The language on marrow.org is unclear on this point, so I emailed them. The person who replied clarified that while their guidelines are "based" on the FDA's blood donation guidelines, their own Donor and Patient Safety Committee [1] ultimately determines policy.

[1]: http://marrow.org/About/Who_We_Are/NMDP_Leaders/NMDP_Committ...

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#184

Post by tomjen3 »

kevinelliott wrote: post #84
k3dz wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thinking along these lines, around 6 million children under five die in developing countries each year from malnutrition and hunger-related diseases. [1] http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats

Yep, this is exactly where my guilt comes in. What am I doing to help any of those millions of starving children? Very little. So many people have told me throughout my life that I need to just ignore it, and you can't save the world. I can't help but think that's just their way of trying to invalidate any guilt of their own, even if they're right that it's not possible to help everyone everywhere. Though that's why…

That is exactly why I ended up adopting the concept (straight out of Atlas Shrugged) that I don't own anybody else anything except if we have made a previous agreement that I do. I don't feel I have to do charity.

So no, you don't have any ethical obligation what so ever toward somebody else. Even if eating out of your garbage could save their life you would be well within your rights to decline.

But really once you stop feeling like it is your responsibility to do something for anybody, no matter how great their need or how trivial it is for you, you feel so much better -- and you can still help somebody if you want to. You just have no obligation.

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#185

Post by kristopolous »

corin_ wrote: post #133
kristopolous wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah very good then. Well since the CDC now says that blacks and women are the most at-risk for HIV, we should probably change the rules with the times then, right? What's that? It now sound horribly offensive, erroneous, and bad policy? Well sorry about that! Gotta be consistent you know.

You're wrong on the facts part, as of this month the CDC still states "men who have sex with men (MSM) of all races and ethnicities remain the population most severely affected by HIV", with their estimated stats being that 2% of the US population are MSM, and they accounted for 61% of new HIV infections in 2009. MSM accounted for 49% of HIV infections in 2008. (Those years are most recent available data.) For more d…

yes, that's the report that went out yesterday. The context of the discussion was "at-risk" in the spirit of "have it but don't know it" or "don't know what to do about it"; not in the spirit of "have it". You can go over to the early release of the data here: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm60e1129a1.htm?s_c... ... the people that get the least counseling, don't think they are at risk, etc, are those two groups.

They are the ones that are most likely to have it and not know it or treat it and are also the ones to face the largest stigma in dealing with the issue.

That's the context; it was the time window after infection but before high confidence of the results in the mouth swab test, which is the standard method used in such circumstances (and also the cheapest).

Anyway, that is what I meant by it, and that's the report I was referring to when I said CDC. I didn't mean to say that gay people don't get it.

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#186

Post by rdamico »

kevinelliott wrote: post #27

I feel absolutely helpless. I hate this situation. I don't know anyone who qualifies, and I certainly don't. The idea that Amit may not find a donor furiously irritates me. What's worse, none of my Facebook and Twitter followers have relayed the message further the several times I've posted about it. Then there's the swab kit sign up form. Oh my, what a pain. And then the guilt sets in where I begin to think 'Why am…

You can sign up and order a kit anyway. Even if you're not a match for Amit, you can take this opportunity to be a potential match for someone else. Who knows, you might save a life.

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#187

Post by haugstrup »

ramblerman wrote: post #182
haugstrup wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All Europeans are also banned from giving blood for forever. I'm a very recent transplant to the US from Denmark. I was a regular blood donor in Denmark and checked up on the US regulations before moving here. Even wrote the local blood bank because I didn't believe that the "if you've lived more than 5 years in Europe, you can't give blood ever" was for real. Sadly, the rule is very much real. The blood bank was als…

Well, as a European I'm Offended. But seriously what's the motivation behind this?

BSE/Mad Cow fears. Because of the BSE outbreak in the UK in the 80s (and the various smaller outbreaks later) the US authorities were scared shitless at some point. So if you've lived 5 or more years in Europe you're banned from donating blood forever.

Not sure I understand the logic... Quarantine for a set period I can understand, but banning for life makes little sense. After all there are many blood donors in all European countries and we don't all end up with mad cow disease when we receive blood transplants.

For comparison: After having lived in the US you are banned from giving blood in Denmark for 1 _month_

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#189

Post by aarondf »

nostromo wrote: post #78

Since I'm still gay, I'm not allowed to help, no matter how many times you ask. I get why they do this and I shouldn't let it bother me, but emotionally it feels the same as if they just said, "Please become a donor, nohomo." edit: Of course I still wish the very best for Amit.

I'm still diabetic, so I'm not allowed to help either.

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#190

Post by zasz »

zasz wrote: post #35
freemarketteddy wrote: post #9

I am a south asian male living in the US.I tried to sign up as a donor.Here is my experience. >Your password needs to be between 8 and 15 characters long, must contain at least 1 number and 1 letter and cannot contain spaces. Seriously WTF....I am sure half of the people who wanted to sign up did not just for this bs! Okay chill...password abcd...... > In the past 5 years have you taken money or drugs in exchange for…

It costs money to sequence DNA and calculate someone's ancestry. 23andMe loses money whenever it sells a kit. Are you seriously too lazy to save a nonprofit a few hundred bucks by spending 1 second to indicate your race? Also, every time I buy something at a store, I have to give them my addresses. Including my phone number and a few extra ways to contact me in case I move, and you know, someone is dying and needs my…

I meant an online store.
Post reply on HN