why is AIDs so widespread?

[slik]

It is also advantageous to the virus for the host to live longer (and perhaps be non-lethal). So with evolution, the AIDS virus will attenuate even further.

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There's a lot of misinformation here...

The reason why AIDS is so widespread is because the virus has developed complicated dormancy mechanisms. It can be present in a host for 4+ years without any symptoms. This keeps the host mobile yet infectious.

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[Beavis68]

there are a list of symptoms, of those symptoms are met, AIDS is diagnoses. Most of the africans diagnosed with AIDS have not been tested for HIV.

[vhawk01]

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It is also advantageous to the virus for the host to live longer (and perhaps be non-lethal). So with evolution, the AIDS virus will attenuate even further.

[ QUOTE ]
There's a lot of misinformation here...

The reason why AIDS is so widespread is because the virus has developed complicated dormancy mechanisms. It can be present in a host for 4+ years without any symptoms. This keeps the host mobile yet infectious.

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AIDS isn't a virus.

[JuntMonkey]

AIDS numbers in Africa are hugely exaggerated.

For starters, AIDS is sometimes diagnosed in Africa with no tests at all - just a description of symptoms to a doctor in a clinic, symptoms which are often identical to those of things like malaria and malnutrition.

Different organizations will have wildly different estimates of the number of infected people, since they often extrapolate based on very small sample sizes.

And finally, even if a patient in Africa is actually tested, AIDS tests often give false positives. In the United States, there are several different blood tests (something like 5) that need to come out a certain way to diagnose a patient as having AIDS. In Africa it's often just 1 test, with false positives possible for numerous reasons, including plain old pregnancy.

Even in the developed world, you could test negative in New York City, then send the EXACT SAME blood work to Australia and test positive.

There was a fantastic article in Rolling Stone magazine in 2001 about AIDS in Africa, written by Rian Malan, a South African journalist. He set out to write an article to expose and bring attention to how bad the AIDS problem was in Africa ("1 in 5 infected"). He started off by making a call or two to confirm some statistics, and found that he could confirm nothing...and then he fell down the rabbit hole.

http://www.whatisaids.com/rollingstone.htm

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
AIDS numbers in Africa are hugely exaggerated.

For starters, AIDS is sometimes diagnosed in Africa with no tests at all - just a description of symptoms to a doctor in a clinic, symptoms which are often identical to those of things like malaria and malnutrition.

Different organizations will have wildly different estimates of the number of infected people, since they often extrapolate based on very small sample sizes.

And finally, even if a patient in Africa is actually tested, AIDS tests often give false positives. In the United States, there are several different blood tests (something like 5) that need to come out a certain way to diagnose a patient as having AIDS. In Africa it's often just 1 test, with false positives possible for numerous reasons, including plain old pregnancy.

Even in the developed world, you could test negative in New York City, then send the EXACT SAME blood work to Australia and test positive.

There was a fantastic article in Rolling Stone magazine in 2001 about AIDS in Africa, written by Rian Malan, a South African journalist. He set out to write an article to expose and bring attention to how bad the AIDS problem was in Africa ("1 in 5 infected"). He started off by making a call or two to confirm some statistics, and found that he could confirm nothing...and then he fell down the rabbit hole.

http://www.whatisaids.com/rollingstone.htm

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As far as I know, there are no blood tests to determine whether someone has AIDS.

[PLOlover]

dr. dean edell said that in africa there's some sort of "dry sex" (vaginal sex) that helps spread HIV.

the other reasons i've heard others have posted, also I've heard from the AIDS is manmade virus crowd that it was designed to better infect the black race.

[slik]

The blood test is a simple enzyme test and a drop is sufficient to test activity. (For this you get the results in 15 minutes).

Recent tests allow a toothpick to scrape a few cells from the cheek to be tested. (I'm not sure about the mechanism of this test). (But you get the results in a few minutes in this test, too).

[slik]

This is an old theory, and biotechnology has only recently reached necessary advancement to be able to create such things.

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
The blood test is a simple enzyme test and a drop is sufficient to test activity. (For this you get the results in 15 minutes).

Recent tests allow a toothpick to scrape a few cells from the cheek to be tested. (I'm not sure about the mechanism of this test). (But you get the results in a few minutes in this test, too).

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OHHH, you mean an HIV test.

[PLOlover]

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This is an old theory, and biotechnology has only recently reached necessary advancement to be able to create such things.

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just rounding out the theories.