HIV: A Taboo With Many Misunderstandings!

[BlackRoseFairy]

Based on the answers I saw in this question What if a guy told you he was HIV positive? Would you date him? by Soulindub I decided to write this so we can clear up some things with scientific information about the so much feared HIV.

Let's start with the basics. What is HIV? HIV are viruses, there are two of them HIV-1 and HIV-2. Human immunodeficiency virus.

What does it do? First of all a simple infection. Which can stay in a negative state, without the person infected developing AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome), for as long as 10 years (about 50% develop it in the time span of 10 years), in others longer than that and in some cases it doesn't develop EVER.

Misunderstanding number 1: HIV doesn't mean AIDS.

Misunderstanding number 2: People who have AIDS don't die FROM AIDS. Their immune system is destroyed by the virus and give plenty of room for opportunistic infections to occur, which can and do kill the affected patients. So they can die from a simple common cold that in a non-infected person would just cause a mild sneezing.

How is it transmitted? HIV is transmitted by

#1 - Having sex – vaginal, anal or oral – with an HIV-infected person (male or female).

Note: a one time exposure (aka having unprotected sex with someone you didn't know is positive) has a 1% chance of transmission.

#2 - Sharing needles or injection equipment with an HIV-infected person to inject or “shoot” drugs.
#3 - From an HIV-infected woman to her baby during pregnancy or during birth. The transmission from a woman not under treatment is 35%, while if the mother is treated it goes down significantly to 0,4%. An infected mother also can pass HIV to her baby when breastfeeding.

Misunderstanding number 3: HIV is NOT transmitted with Hugging, shaking hands, coughs or sneezes, eating food prepared or handled by an HIV-infected person, donating blood, mosquitoes, toilet seats, sweat or tears, simple kissing or everyday contact with HIV-infected persons at school, work, home or anywhere else.

Misunderstanding number 4: A father who is HIV+ can't pass it to the child. This is an extremely rare case, and only a handful of them are known.

Misunderstanding number 5: HIV positive doesn't mean, and I will insist on this, DOES NOT MEAN that the person is a junkie or a sleeping around. Ask before you judge. There are 400 babies born every year that are HIV positive. They come to this world carrying other people's baggage. They are born stigmatised for something they had no control whatsoever. So before you judge, maybe you should consider this case...

Can you safely date a person who is HIV positive? YES! You can.

ART treatment (antiretroviral drugs) can lower the viral load of the person to undetectable levels, which means that they can't transmit it any more. If the load stays at undetectable levels for 6 months, the person can also have sex without protection and have no risk whatsoever of passing it on to a partner.

There are more good news coming! Stem cell treatment is under research for HIV positive people and so far 2 persons have been completely cured of HIV. Yes! Completely cured! A cure is on the way!!

I hope you found this informative and that I managed to change your views on this topic.

PS. It's not HIV you should be afraid of. It's Hepatitis B. Hepatitis B is far more infectious (50-100 times more than HIV) and has NO cure so you better make sure you are vaccinated against it.

And a little trivial knowledge for the end. An HIV+ person and a Hep B positive person are bleeding and a drop of blood falls to the floor.

The virus of HIV will survive on the floor for a few hours and is not infective during that time. The HBV will survive for at least 7 days and is still infective in this state.

Something to think about .... 😉

[rjroy3]

Rules aren't made for the exceptions. They're made for the vast majority of cases. Most people with HIV got it through needles or sexual transmission. End of story. Yes edge cases exist. That doesn't mean you drop the rule of thumb due to the exceptions.

Saying AIDS doesn't kill you, it's the following infections that kill you is like saying. Getting shot doesn't kill you. Your heart no longer beating is what kills you. One caused the other, which lead to the end state. AIDS kills you by round about means. If you didn't have AIDS the following infections wouldn't have killed you... aka AIDS is the culprit.

There should certainly be a stigma around HIV. The stigma should be and is "if you sleep with this person you can get what they have". The stigma isn't "you're just a dirty whore, get away". HIV isn't a good thing. It's not something we should overlook and it's not something we should overlook passing around. I remember a case relatively recently in the past few years, a man was trying to have legislation passed making it not a felony for an HIV+ individual to have sex with other people without telling them about it beforehand, under the premise of "destigmatizing" HIV.

That's my biggest issue with people pushing to remove the stigma. There's an end goal in mind. Which is to have society look at it as more or less harmless. When that happens passing it to someone without telling them suddenly seems like it shouldn't be a felony, because it's not "that bad" in the eyes of society. So na. For sure let's keep the stigma. Be educated on the matter, but let's not lie to ourselves or underplay the fact it can lead to a shorter life. HIV isn't a good thing. Yes, it can lead to AIDs. Yes, AIDS can kill you by round about means. No, having HIV doesn't mean you're a filthy whore and or drug addict. Yes, most who have it got it that way so don't be surprised when you're lumped into that group in the eyes of people who don't know you.

[BlackRoseFairy]

I never said it is good thing and of course it shouldn't be taken lightly.
Stigmatism is far more than just sex.
And stigmatism needs to be raised in order for people to get tested too you know. Even you or someone you know could be a carrier without knowing it, because you/they never got tested. Maybe out of fear for the results and being stigmatised themselves, out of embarrassment, out of psychological reasons that derive from stigmatism, and the cockiness of thinking "this will never happen to me" is deep down also a fear.

And at the bottomline this also doesn't help, because they will keep spreading the virus without knowing it.
Stigma needs to be raised for the whole society's sake, not just the patients.

[rjroy3]

Personally I've just been intelligent in my sexual practices. Sincerely have never had the concern or felt testing was warranted. Maybe arrogance or perhaps ignorance according to the points of your take, but that is my reasoning. Why should I get tested when I had multiple relationships where sex longterm happened. Neither of us had or contracted anything. Went on to sleep with new people with no hiccups along the way.

I also go to the doctor at different times for statistical likely risks to my health, where STDS would show up if I had them. Hasn't yet.

To be clear, I didn't mean to suggest you were saying HIV is good lol. But your candor was that of someone seeking to remove the stigma that comes with it and ultimately play down it's severity. Using the premise of just seeking to educate.

Points such as "PS. It's not HIV you should be afraid of. It's Hepatitis B" is a strooong statement suggesting that HIV isn't "that" bad or something not to be concerned about. When it is something to be concerned about.

[BlackRoseFairy]

Human interactions are more than sex. People hear "HIV" and run away as if they've seen the devil in person. You can still sit down and talk with a positive person, you can have dinner or watch a movie together, all without being endangered yourself. I'm not saying that I wish you that, but what if it was someone you know? Would you cut them off from your life?

[rjroy3]

You're conflating the point.

HIV is objectively a negative and the stigma behind it is valid. That does not mean HIV positive people should be excommunicated from society.

If you want to make the case that those with it are treated poorly more than they deserve, then make your case. But leaping from that to suggesting the stigma should be removed entirely is a massively different subject and from my standpoint is merely an idiotic decision.

[BlackRoseFairy]

The way people who are diagnosed as positive are treated in overall sense, the stigmatism, is one of the reasons that people avoid getting tested or seek for therapy. And this is much worse.
What if happens if someone IS HIV+ but has never been tested for it and completely ignores the fact that he/she is a carrier? He/she will continue to spread it...
The taboo also needs to go. Have you asked your partners about their Stds? Would you be comfortable with asking? Have you gotten tested together? Those are the steps you need to take in order to say your partner is clean.
I could say that I am an elephant typing this with my trunk, will you believe me? 🤷‍♀️

[razelove]

I don't think most people care much about the facts of HIV, they just don't want to catch it, though ironically from what I've observed condom use is waaayyy down. I think if you polled most people they wouldn't know how a virus reproduces, much less the particulars of one specific one.

Either way, there are at home test kits for hiv, and condoms. Personally I don't want to risk getting it. Hep B isn't such a bad one from what I've seen, Hep C is though. There's a cure, if you have 10s of thousands to throw at it.

Both people who were cured so far had to undergo radiation therapy to destroy their bone marrow, and had HIV-I which some native Americans are immune to, donated bone marrow was engineered to have the same genes that native Americans immune to HIV-I have and used in both cases if I remember correctly. I know in the first case that's what happened.

[BlackRoseFairy]

Hepatitis B has a vaccine that can prevent the infection. Hepatitis C doesn't.
But on the other hand HCV has a cure, HBV doesn't.
1 in 20 people who get hepatitis B as adults become “carriers,”meaning they can spread hepatitis B — for the rest of their lives.

[Anonymous]

My friend is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to HIV as she is herself an HIV counselor, so one day over lunch, I posed the question of whether she would date, or more specifically sleep with, one of the people she counseled whom she knew had HIV if they were no longer a client, and she hesitated for too long and then gave some long winded answer that ended in a shrug.

What it ultimately boils down to is if you have the option of say dating 10 people, all things being equal, and one of them has HIV, I think just about 100% of people would try and date the other 9. I've been educated through her about all of the advancements that have gone on with HIV/AIDS since the terrible 80's and 90's where it was basically a death sentence, but there is still a lot that goes into it. In the same way I don't think we should stigmatize people with HIV, I also don't think we should make people feel bad for not wanting to take this on, undetectable or not. It's not fair to those born with it, who got it through transfusion, who slept with a husband/wife who was sleeping around, or who made some terrible life choices and ended up with it. It's just not fair on either end like a 100 million other things in life but dating is about choice, and we all get to make that choice for ourselves and shouldn't be judged for it in the same way we shouldn't judge those with HIV.

[BlackRoseFairy]

It's a different matter to choose not to date/ have a relationship with someone affected and a different one to set them aside from society.
I respect someone who says they don't want to have a partner who is HIV positiv, that is your right, and I am not here to judge.
I just wanted to share some knowledge, break the stigma, even if just a little, and hopefully encourage more people to get tested and get therapy.
Many people are afraid to be discriminated and avoid getting tested or search for therapy.

[Anonymous]

I knew all of these but I still would not date someone who was HIV+.
I'd constantly live with the fear of being infected.
I am a bit of a hypochondriac. For example I don't use tampons because whenever I use one, I am crippled by the fear of getting TSS and I constantly check my temperature, heart rate and blood pressure for up to 7 days after having used a regular tampon!

[DiscomfortZone]

You've said so yourself - you have somewhat of a phobia condition, not prejudice against HIV. That's very understandable.

[BlackRoseFairy]

@DiscomfortZone exactly! That's totally acceptable.

[hellionthesagereborn]

This is a life altering disease that will inevitably result in your death, just because another virus finishes you off doesn't mean that AIDs wasn't the cause of it. I agree you should treat them like human beings (that should be obvious), I agree that people should be aware that its transmited by bodily fluids, I agree that we shouldn't presume that it was bad behavior on their part that caused it (Isaac Asimov died due to aids (yes yes "complications" ones which would not have arisen if he didn't have aids) thanks to a blood transfusion. That can hardly be considered his fault.). That said AIDS is deadly, you will almost certainly die because of it (just because its slow progressing doesn't mean its not lethal). Claiming it doesn't kill is like claiming its blood loss that kills you all the while ignoring that the person is only bleeding to death because of the bullet that ripped through them (its a stupid argument).

Also acting as if just anyone could get this is also a stupid argument, we do know how its transmited and their are cases of people having a partner that knowingly exposed them to it so again, we shouldn't presume all cases are the same but the overwhelming majority of HIV carriers have it because of either gay sex (because anal sex can cause micro tears in the tissue which allow for a greater risk of infection), promiscuous unprotected sex (because the more you do this the more likely you are to come across some one who is infected (because they are also participating in this behavior), and the sharing of needles due to drugs. If your not doing these things your chances of getting aids are less then.1%.

Again, being informed is important and we shouldn't ignore the circumstances that put people in this position (drug addiction for example doesn't just happen. Usually its either a slow "corruption" i. e. hanging out with a bad crowd, many little choices that add up or due to bad family life and to ignore that is simply unfair.) but we also shouldn't down play it and act like its harmless.

[BlackRoseFairy]

I never said it is harmless. I just tried to point out that people shouldn't be quick to judge and that people who are HIV+ shouldn't be cast aside.
As I said to others, you can still spend time with them, watch a movie together, laugh, share some food, all without being endangered yourself.
Even those who made mistakes and acquired it, still have the right to live.

[hellionthesagereborn]

No but your downplaying how damaging it is. Your acting as if its impact is limited. I mean why would you make it a point to say the disease doesn't kill you? Of course it does, the other diseases wouldn't be able to kill you if it wasn't for having AIDS, again, like blaming the blood loss and ignoring the bullet. That's downplaying it. Pointing out that with treatment it becomes less likely to be transmited (and it is LESS likely, not entirely impossible) is a way of downplaying it. Again I agree we should be aware of all of this but we should never not respect how dangerous it can be (especially due to its latency period which allows it to be easily transmitted to others (ironic really as this is why more famous virus's like Ebola are actually less likely to spread, because they have a short latency period and symptoms show almost immediately). As for the right to live, no one actually believes they don't and I most definitely never claimed it (I pointed out they need to be respected as human beings and we should be aware of how its not always through poor decisions that they get it and that should also be known).

[jp612612]

Here's the thing -- everything you said is true. In fact, HIV/AIDS is not the death sentence that it was back in the 80s. With all the money that was put into HIV/AIDS research back then, people with that disease live relatively normal lives. However, that doesn't mean that anyone would want to actually live with such a disease. I mean, is genital herpes fatal? No, it's not... in fact, the symptoms from the disease are very, very minor. But that doesn't mean that anyone is ok with having herpes and this goes beyond social stigma. It's a pain in the ass to live with something like that just like it's a pain in the ass to live with diabetes.

There is no shortage of men and women in this world. It's like our most plentiful resource. There's no reason to be so thirsty that you can't be a little discriminating so my advice to anyone considering a relationship with someone who is HIV-positive? Just find another woman/man to have a relationship with -- believe it or not, they all work the same.

[BlackRoseFairy]

Discrimination is seen in more than sex. People often lose their jobs after being diagnosed, friends and even family may turn their back on the affected person, it is often accompanied by depression and anxiety due to the fact of the infection. We don't need to make it worse by casting them aside.

[tallandsweet]

I'm glad we learned so much about HIV at school, we could ask all questions we had and also got into details with the different types of Hepatitis - something we all agreed on is that it's far more scary to catch Hepatitis than the Human immunodeficiency virus.
I used to think I couldn't touch people with HIV as a child, and I'm glad that my parents explained to me that this is untrue. A video I liked explaining what HIV is was this:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/DzXgCW9YcNg

[markscott]

Where did you get the information that a person could not contract HIV from blood? If you mean our blood supply is tested for HIV, along with many other things, then yes, in that sense, it can't be contracted from blood. But if the blood is not tested, or is mislabeled, a person can certainly get HIV from blood. There has been, for a while, great treatments for HIV, that apparently, make it unnecessary for a person to die of HIV. The hope of a cure, as you say, may be around the corner. In perspective, I have worked in a hospital. I know staff who have died of hepatitis contracted from patients. I don't know if any staff who died from contracting HIV.

[BlackRoseFairy]

I didn't say it can't be contracted from blood, I dais it can't be contracted from DONATING blood. As in when you go and donate blood you won't get HIV.
Even if the person before you was an undiagnosed patient they equipment used for every person is sterile and you don't run a risk by donating blood.

[markscott]

Blackrose: Yes, if the equipment is sterile, and it should always be, you can't get HIV donating blood. If needles for donating blood were not sterile, we would have an epidemic of a number of diseases. That in itself demonstrates that it's safe to give blood.

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

Thank you for sharing this MyTake with us , Yes there was a Girl
who was born with HIV from her Mother , she dated this Guy and
when her HIV levels was unnoticed in her blood stream i did hear
they had sex with no issues and he never caught anything off of her
sad thing with the Girl , Guys came in her life and after a while they
would leave her for fear that they would catch something off of her
yes i hope this opens lot peoples eyes.

[BlackRoseFairy]

This is sad... The question Iinked in made me realise how many people don't know about this and it inspired me to write this take. I am not saying that it is not serious, it is. But there are so many options today that can give a person a full life span and a life without fear.
Most people are afraid of the name, but they have no idea what they are fearing.

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

Yes i agree with you , this was well written.. when i saw that Documentary
with that Girl who was born HIV.. she was dating this guy and they had sex
well she told him.. he made a big scene and right away got tested well he
came back with nothing.. than sad he broke up with her but i do agree Hep B
is more worst than HIV.. really something else.

[BlackRoseFairy]

Of course he came back negative. Even if he catches it from that 1% chance it will show after 3 or 4 months, not right away 🤦‍♀️
Something I forgot to add in the take...
Even if you clean the floor with bleach, the blood stain containing Hbv is resistant to it. The hiv will be completely eradicated.

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

Yeah i see

[YHL6965]

Sorry but no, I'm not touching a person with HIV or AIDS. I prefer to not risk my life, even if it hurts them emotionally. You never know, there can always be micro cuts or things like that that screw you over. Besides, it's an avoidable disease so, if you did not take your responsibilities to avoid it, then don't expect me to have much sympathy or make a step to make you feel better about that. Sorry but this is a deadly disease and I don't want my life to end because of a dumb mistake. I also don't want this to spread even more.

[BlackRoseFairy]

In 1996, the total life expectancy for a 20-year-old person with HIV was 39 years. In 2011, the total life expectancy bumped up to about 70 years. The survival rate for HIV-positive people has also dramatically improved since the first days of the HIV epidemic.

[BlackRoseFairy]

We will be in 2020 in a few days. Just saying... And if you read the last part of the take, complete cure has already been achieved. 2 people, yes, but it is a good start.

[YHL6965]

I understand the goal of this take, but I'm not risking my life for such minor things. You still die from that and you live a life of constant treatment and all. Even if you don't die, your life is heavily impacted by that and I don't want any of that. I already have enough things to take care of and I don't want to risk having another huge weight on my shoulders.

I don't trust the "complete cure" until it has been time tested. Prototypes always look fancy but do not always work reliably.

[BlackRoseFairy]

You said "you're not touching a person with HIV or AIDS"
Well, you won't get infected from touching them. You are rather exposing THEM to a potentially harmful infection.
THIS is the goal of this take. You can go out with a person who is HIV+ and sit at the same table as they do, have some food together, laugh, have some good time without being in danger of being infected.
Human interactions are more than sex.

[YHL6965]

Like I said earlier, microcuts are a think and I would take more precautions than not enough.

[Anonymous]

So let me see if my understanding is right here:

1) HIV is EXTREMELY dangerous and a virus you really, REALLY don't want to contract
2) Two things you can do to substantially reduce your chances of infection are don't use intravenous drugs and don't have sex with someone who has HIV
3) Promiscuous sex and gay sex are much more likely to spread HIV than monogamous heterosexual sex

Is that right?

[anjaliluck]

I have an uncle with HIV- he's had it for roughly 15 years so I can attest that HIV is a scary condition. It is, however, very livable. My uncle is a great person and has always been- he got it when his ex-wife cheated on him and it subsequently spread to him. Saying that all people who have HIV are promiscuous is SO incredibly inaccurate; all it takes is for 1 person to lie to you. Please be kinder to people with HIV/AIDS, everyone! You aren't in any position to judge them- not a single person in this world is sinless.

[Redstang88]

All true, but still an unnecessary risk as far as I’m concerned. I’m hard enough on my body without knowingly sleeping with someone with an incurable infectious disease

[BlackRoseFairy]

You probably missed the parts about
- ART Treatment eliminates transmission
- a cure is under research and already successfully applied to 2 people

[Redstang88]

No, saw those. Eliminates transmission still sounds like playing with fire to me. And yeah 2 people were cured, did it say how many it failed to cure?

[BlackRoseFairy]

In the phrase "under research" which word is unclear to you? It is still in developing phase, and as such it means that it is not yet finished.

[Redstang88]

That was very clear, that’s why I didn’t consider it a reliable cure yet.

[DiscomfortZone]

I was very happy to discuss this with you and @soulindub in his question. Made me realize how little I knew about all this, how outdated my facts and opinions were. Thank you both fir making me smarter and better!

[BlackRoseFairy]

Thank you for being open minded and willing to hear! That's a very important part when you try to share information about such topics... ❤️

[Randomawkwardness]

Wait I am confused on how the father would pass HIV along. Wouldn't the mother end up with it first and then be the one giving it to the baby? Otherwise, well written. I wish people would understand that having HIV doesn't make you some dangerous person who'll infect everyone around them - there is only a slight chance of getting it and only through fluids.

[EleanorRigby]

I already knew all of this, and I still wouldn't date someone with HIV. I only mention dating because you reffered to the question of dating.

And, not mentioned in your take, but people who are against criminalization of people not disclosing they have HIV (or any sexual disease) to their partners are absolutely insane.

[dbr1987]

They should make a dating app for people with aids. So they can still have sex and date. Only the datingpool would be smaller. If i ever get aids from a girl who knew she got the virus but did not tell me i would kill her. If she told me i would not date her and respect that she told me

[esotericstory]

There is no evidence that undetectablity equals untransmitability. Secondly, you did not talk about demographic statistics when it comes to HIV/AIDS. Thats really contradictory to the title of this mytake because you want to remove misunderstandings but are omitting demographic statistics.

[BlackRoseFairy]

From the nih (National institute of health)
How does being durably undetectable affect my risk of transmitting HIV to a sexual partner?

People living with HIV who take antiretroviral medications daily as prescribed and who achieve and then maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner.

Three large multinational research studies involving couples in which one partner was living with HIV and the other was not—HPTN 052, PARTNER and Opposites Attract—observed no HIV transmission to the HIV-negative partner while the partner with HIV had a durably undetectable viral load. These studies followed approximately 3,000 male-female and male-male couples over many years while they did not use condoms. Over the course of the PARTNER and Opposites Attract studies, couples reported engaging in more than 74,000 condomless episodes of vaginal or anal intercourse.

From WHO (world health organisation)
The science related to the use of ART as an additional prevention tool is clear: there is no evidence that individuals who have successfully achieved and maintained viral suppression through ART transmit the virus sexually to their HIV-negative partner (s). The preventive benefits of ART should be appropriately emphasized in HIV treatment and prevention programmes.
Further evidence that successful ART with viral suppression prevented HIV transmission to sexual partners has confirmed the findings from HPTN 052. PARTNERS9 and Opposites Attract10 both reported no transmission when viral load was undetectable below 200 copies/mL.

These data have led to an increasing consensus that people who have achieved and maintained undetectable viral load cannot transmit HIV sexually to their partners.

[esotericstory]

Just because there is no evidence that its not being transmitted doesn't mean that its not being transmitted. Consensus is false, only evidence is legitimate. Lack of evidence is not legitimacy.

[esotericstory]

"Gay and bisexual men, the CDC noted, continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV, with “more than 26,000 gay and bisexual men received an HIV diagnosis in 2015" how do you explain this? If its indeed untransmitable why are gays still over represented? Makes no sense to me.

www.advocate.com/.../truth-about-hiv-and-being-untransmittable

[BlackRoseFairy]

It doesn't say "lack of evidence" it says "THERE IS NO EVIDENCE" which means that the subjects have been tested for transmission and NONE was found. In medicine this is a GOOD thing.

[esotericstory]

I guess I can change my outlook on things. Its still strange that gays are so over represented for some reason.

[Screenwriter]

"This means that people who take ART daily as prescribed and achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner.” I think the couples who use PreP prophylaxis daily and have an HIV + partner are highly motivated to keep their viral load negative and stay healthy. However, there are people who might NOT take their ART medications as prescribed and NOT go to their doctors to keep their viral loads negative and can, therefore, pass along the virus. There may also be prostitutes and drug users who never get tested and pass along the virus. Someone IS infected and not tested and not treated or not taking their drugs to stay negative. Otherwise, there would be no new infections. That is the problem. How would you know if someone's load was negative? How would you know if someone was taking their treatment? That is the problem. Unless you're in a committed relationship, I don't think taking that chance is rational.

[esotericstory]

@Screenwriter The problem is social, not medical. Medicine is not a substitute for morality. It seems that we should rather ex communicate gays entirely than simply those with HIV.

[esotericstory]

[BlackRoseFairy]

He is not gay - obviously - and there are even worse cases than that...
www.google.gr/.../

That's another reason why people need to be educated and the stigma needs to be gone.

[Anoniemus]

I thought all of that was obvious...

But additionally, this proves how stem cell research is beneficial.

[DiscomfortZone]

Sadly not obvious at all. The post in question and this take were the first time I've been exposed to this crucial information. It appears one has to actively research HIV or know someone who. dies in order to learn the current fact.

And yes, stem cell research is very beneficial!

[Adi95]

I do not know what to say. I just hope it will be curable soon. I know people with hiv and good medical treatment can live almost same life as normal healthy people.
I will be happy for all positive people if someone find cure for that virus.

[Naydyonov]

Once there is a cure it will definitely become less taboo. The same way having diabetes is not so crazy as it once could have been. Not preferable, but not critical. If HIV can be cured, then people won't treat it like the plague.

[October808]

I don't think Freddie Mercury mis-understood. He died from AIDS, not a common cold. His body literaly wasted away until he looked like a corpse in his final days.

[BlackRoseFairy]

The cause of death of Freddie Mercury was bronchial pneumonia, complicated by AIDS.

[BlackRoseFairy]

FYI regarding pneumonia 30-day mortality rate is 5 to 10 percent of hospitalized patients. It can be up to 30 percent in those admitted to intensive care.
Complications of bronchial pneumonia include Respiratory failure, Acute respiratory distress syndrome, Sepsis and Lung abscesses.
And those with weakened or suppressed immune systems (like AIDS) are particularly an at-risk group.

[MackToday]

Those drugs aren't that good, the're expensive they have serious side effects. Living with HIV is hell. I would never date anyone with HIV period. Nor should it be decriminalized if you spread it.

[Safa01]

Nobody said it is a good disease. But I feel sorry for the people tht are judged harshly because of it. Nobody is getting hiv from a hug, being friends and they don't usually transmit if under treatment and use a condom.

[MackToday]

@Safa01 There's a lot of stigma around that shouldn't be. White nationalists for instance, it's just assumed we're Nazis and horrible racists who want to gas people. Most are no different than any other ethnic nationalist. No one says that about Australian Aboriginal people for identifying with and being loyal to their tribe for instance. So I get where you're coming from.

[Safa01]

Education and information like tjis is heavily needed