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Is the end of AIDS in sight?

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Re: Is the end of AIDS in sight?

#101

Post by irrational »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #99
irrational wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are treatable if a person knows they have it, but they often go undetected in women. Women often have no outward symptoms and by the time they are diagnosed, the damage is done and they are infertile. This is permanent damage that is devastating news to couples trying to get pregnant.

Which is precisely why people should get regularly tested for STDs.

Except, we all know that doesn't happen, mostly because of the state of healthcare in the USA. My brother got colon cancer, so I tried to get a colonoscopy (I'm over 50), they refused unless I saw a primary care doctor first, well the first available appointment was 6 months out. After that I got a colonoscopy appointment, another 6 months out. Ridiculous reality.

Re: Is the end of AIDS in sight?

#103

Post by irrational »

FuriouslyAdrift wrote: post #84
irrational wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not true. Both can cause infertility in women. One of my friends is an ob/gyn and they say that one of the saddest parts of their jobs is telling a couple that the wife is infertile because of an STI she contracted (almost always Chlamydia or Gonorrhea) at some time in the past. Both of these STIs can go undetected in females for years. They just don't have any outward symptoms. By the time they find out, it i…

Gonorrhea has become drug resistant due to the overuse of anibiotics (both for people and animals). Prior to fairly recently, it was easily cured if detected. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/multi-drug-...

It's the detection that is the problem. Ideally people will get checked regularly, but with the state of healthcare in the USA, we know that does not happen.

Re: Is the end of AIDS in sight?

#104

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #66
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #19

As a gay man well into middle age, whenever I get somewhat depressed about the state of human affairs, I think about the incredible improvements in AIDS treatment and prevention and I feel a little better. It's hard for people who didn't live through it to really understand what a terrifying time the 80s and 90s were. First off, the general message of sexual education was pretty much "If you have sex, it's probably g…

I have spent my adult life in a community that experiences higher-than-average HIV/HepC exposure, and well remember the "Great Die-Off" of the early-to-mid 1990s. To anyone that missed out, dying of AIDs is horrible. The West has the luxury of expensive drugs to treat it, but much of the developing world doesn't have that, and they are still dying like flies, with very little of the transmission happening through hom…

> The West has the luxury of expensive drugs to treat it, but much of the developing world doesn't have that, and they are still dying like flies

That's not really true, as the article points out. PEPFAR has really done amazing work lowering the HIV mortality rate in developing countries. And a reminder of who may keep this program from being reauthorized: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/07/29/pepfar-aids...

Re: Is the end of AIDS in sight?

#106

Post by hellojesus »

diogenes4 wrote: post #71
mathewsanders wrote: post #52

> They can take pre-exposure prophylaxis (prep), a kind of drug that reduces their chance of contracting it by 99% or so. This comes as a daily pill, and is popular among gay men in rich countries. The article takes a global focus (which makes sense since most new HIV diagnoses happen outside of the United States), but even the United States has over 30,000 new HIV infections per year. In 2021 feds mandated that insu…

It doesn't help that heterosexual use of prep is virtually unheard of.

I hear of it, but typically it's only taken by those who engage in high risk activities. There are potential issues with the liver and kidney that make it not worthwhile if one isn't at moderate to high risk.

Re: Is the end of AIDS in sight?

#107

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

irrational wrote: post #101
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is precisely why people should get regularly tested for STDs.

Except, we all know that doesn't happen, mostly because of the state of healthcare in the USA. My brother got colon cancer, so I tried to get a colonoscopy (I'm over 50), they refused unless I saw a primary care doctor first, well the first available appointment was 6 months out. After that I got a colonoscopy appointment, another 6 months out. Ridiculous reality.

I think there are plenty of problems with US healthcare, but I don't think this is one of them. Standard of care in the US is to get screened for STDs at least annually for sexually active people, and more frequently depending on your risk factors. Being on PrEP involves mandatory testing for STDs every 3 months. There are also tons of free clinics where people can get checked for STDs.

Re: Is the end of AIDS in sight?

#108

Post by londons_explore »

pixl97 wrote: post #77
londons_explore wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No - just a guess based on the fact that me and the people around me tend to know ~250 people. Ie. there are probably 250 people who would find out if I got diabetes and died. Those people would then probably take a little more care of their health, and take steps to avoid the same fate.

> Ie. there are probably 250 people who would find out if I got diabetes and died. Those people would then probably take a little more care of their health Around 14% of Americans have diabetes, so I don't think that really pans out.

But how many Americans are aware of diabetes and take at least some effort to avoid it? Eg. Drinking diet coke instead of regular Coke? Most...

Re: Is the end of AIDS in sight?

#109

Post by Clamchop »

cltby wrote: post #57
mathewsanders wrote: post #52

> They can take pre-exposure prophylaxis (prep), a kind of drug that reduces their chance of contracting it by 99% or so. This comes as a daily pill, and is popular among gay men in rich countries. The article takes a global focus (which makes sense since most new HIV diagnoses happen outside of the United States), but even the United States has over 30,000 new HIV infections per year. In 2021 feds mandated that insu…

Rather depressing that we're subsidizing wanton sexual indulgence to the tune of $30k/year/person.

What motivated you to share this?

Re: Is the end of AIDS in sight?

#110

Post by wormius »

Darthy wrote: post #86
EatingWithForks wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference with AIDS is that AIDS at the time condemned you to a slow, horrible, visible decline, in which your death was celebrated via a radio talk show host that at the time had an entire regular segment to name and mock the people who died. Like, this doesn't apply to people who get cervical cancer from HPV or other similarly tragic outcomes of acquiring an STD. The cruelty on the scale is way above anything.

That's revolting. Which radio show was this?

Rush Limbaugh? Or any of the right-wing radio hosts who mocked belittled and laughed at liberal/minority suffering, I'm sure.
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