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According to
The CDC as of 2002, 57 U.S. healthcare workers were known to have been infected with HIV occupationally. 26 of them went on to develop AIDS.
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First, do you understand what AIDS is? It is a list of a few dozen pre-existing diseases (pneumonia, cancer, wasting disease, etc.) that occur in the presence of HIV
antibodies . 26 people in 26 years could easily be explained by the natural occurrence of these diseases. 26 is a vanishingly small number.
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My fiance worked in an enormous public hospital in south africa for several years. The HIV rate on admissions there was something horrific (like 70-80%) and she saw many people die as a result.
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Did your fiance administer HIV antibodies tests? The majority of AIDS cases in Africa (maybe not South Africa) are diagnosed based on symptoms only, so all infection rates and AIDS deaths are estimates.
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Is that true? I thought it was about 400,000. Where do you get your info? Whatever the number is, it's unsurprising if it's fairly stable. It's not getting higher because of limited transmission vectors and safe sex. It's not getting lower because, to paraphrase Phil, people are still having unsafe buttsex. But I don't know that it is stable, back this up.
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It is very difficult to find clear information. Try finding a chart showing how many people are HIV positive by year. Wiki indicates that 1 million are living with HIV in the US. Here’s a
link that indicates in 1989, there were 1 million with HIV.
It’s surprising that it’s stable. HIV is supposed to be a “new” virus, and new viruses always follow the same bell-shaped infection rate: exponential growth until natural immunity kicks in, and then rapid decline. A constant number of people living with HIV indicate HIV is not the cause of AIDS.
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Why has no health care worker ever gotten AIDS from a needle stick but 1500/year get hepatitis?
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No health care worker has ever gotten HIV from a needle?
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This is very interesting. I said no health care worker ever got
AIDS , and you say
HIV. This indicates the level of confusion of the issue. But yes, I guess technically 1/year has gotten AIDS from needle-sticks.
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No one talks about it? Where do you live? Who's your friend?
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Um… looking something up on the internet is not “talking” about it. When I talk to people about AIDS, most have very little understanding about what it is, who gets infected, etc. Most are mildly worried that Africa’s population is going to die out, but happy that we’ve controlled it here through AZT.
Lastly, do you know of any other disease that reports it’s deaths as a
cumulative total? I find that weird.
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I think its funny that you harp on him for misusing HIV and AIDS and yet in your OP you mentioned that no health-care workers get AIDS from a needle-stick. I assume you mean that none have gotten HIV? Or do you mean that many get HIV, but none of these develop into AIDS? I mean...large numbers of people get HIV and take a really long time to develop into AIDS...some never do.