AIDS in britain

[Rollory]

A brief detour from the NOLA frenzy:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,1565602,00.html

Essentially, AIDS in Britain is almost exclusively a black and homosexual disease.

Incredibly, there are probably only 184 white, British, heterosexual men and women who have contracted HIV in the UK through having sex with someone from the same demographic group in the last 20 years.

The first question that springs to mind is why this might be the case. As far as I know, white heterosexuals don't have any extra genetic immunity against HIV.

The second question is whether similar patterns hold elsewhere in the Western world. I'm inclined to guess that they do, based on other reports I've seen, but can't point to anything conclusive.

[noun]

As far as I know, white heterosexuals don't have any extra genetic immunity against HIV.

Actually, some do (whites, that is). I'll have to Google the source, but according to a documentary I saw on PBS a while back, Europeans whose direct ancestors survived the Black Plague are incapable of contracting AIDS. Pretty fascinating stuff, I'll have to find it again.

[extarbags]

Actually, and I apologize for not finding a more reputable source, and expect to be thoroughly debunked here, but blacks are more susceptible to AIDS: (http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/aids.html)

A striking feature of AIDS is that it's ethno-selective. The rate of infection is twice as high among Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans as among whites, with death coming two to three times as swiftly. And over 80% of the children with AIDS and 90% of infants born with it are among these minorities. "Ethnic weapons" that would strike certain racial groups more heavily than others have been a long-standing U.S. Army BW objective. (Harris and Paxman, p 265)

Like I said, that source is a joke, but hey that part might be true.

[Angie Gallant]

Here are the CDC's statistics (http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/stats.htm#aidsrace). Cumulatively, whites lead but blacks have a disproportionately high number of cases. Male-to-male sexual activity is the leading cause, but drug injections is high enough that it can't be written off.

[Jason McCullough]

There's also income and how well risky behavior tracks with that. This is one of the few things Desslock has even been right about and I wrong about.

[Rob Beschizza]

I understand it's been established that the descendents of people living in medieval Britain and Scandinavia have a greater resistance to HIV.

It has something to do with historical plagues having a peculiar effect in these countries.

EDIT: google:

http://www.google.com/search?q=HIV+plague+britain+medieval

[MikeSofaer]

In general the heterosexual transmission rates for AIDS are staggeringly low. It can be tranmitted to the woman due to tearing, and to the man if he has open sores on his penis, usually from another STD.

Good healthcare in general makes you less succeptible to AIDS, since you are more likely to get STDs treated, although that shouldn't be a racial issue in England, right?

[Rob Beschizza]

In general the heterosexual transmission rates for AIDS are staggeringly low. It can be tranmitted to the woman due to tearing, and to the man if he has open sores on his penis, usually from another STD.

Good healthcare in general makes you less succeptible to AIDS, since you are more likely to get STDs treated, although that shouldn't be a racial issue in England, right?

In the sense that the vast majority of people get the exact same healthcare access, yes. (And, by and large, it's good healthcare, for all the complaints.)

[Ben]

Mike Sofaer- Usually? I may not want to hear the answer to this, but what non-STD conditions result in open sores on the penis?

[MikeSofaer]

Mike Sofaer- Usually? I may not want to hear the answer to this, but what non-STD conditions result in open sores on the penis?
Bubonic plague, chicken pox, belt sander mishaps, etc.

[Peter Frazier]

Overzealous masturbation? Incompetent use of a zipper?

p.s. Just guesses, not life experience here....

[extarbags]

Overzealous masturbation?

...

p.s. Just guesses, not life experience here....

I wish I could say the same... :/

[Nellie]

The first question that springs to mind is why this might be the case.

I think a lot of the clues can be found in the article itself. Given our love of splitting communities down to the nth degree, the article does make it pretty clear that within the black community at least, the disease is largely confined to Africans and that many people are bringing the disease with them or are catching it from someone who has recently come from/returned from Africa.

Compared to the 80's when AIDS [awareness] arrived in the UK and there was massive, if slightly vague, advertising, there is practically no visible campaign at the moment regarding safe sex at all. I've no idea what the situation is like in schools but the "epidemic" of STDs that is continually reported and some of the quotes in the article does tend to suggest that what education is being provided is incredibly basic and is not providing people with the information they need.

That the rise in other STDs is generally confined to the under 30's does tend to suggest that vague as it was, the 80's safe sex campaign worked.

[Rob Beschizza]

I grew up in Britain in the 1980s. As a child, I was absolutely terrified by the British HIV awareness advertising.

The giant tombstone etched with AIDS toppling over and slamming into the viewpoint.

That Britain is relatively HIV-free might just be because the government had the balls to run asbolutely uncompromising public information ads right when the disease hit in the early 80s.

Update: http://www.avert.org/postershist.htm

This history of aids awareness posters is interesting. It seems Britain had Aids posters describing risky behavior from even before HIV was named. The U.S., on the other hand, has posters telling you that you can't catch AIDS from doorknobs, as if it was more important to remind white normal people that they are safe.

I know that's a cynical perspective. I'm sorry.

[MikeSofaer]

I'm told that it was basically brushed under the carptet here in the U.S. until white straight normal people started dying of it.
I haven't seen any statistics on this, so in this case it's just my prejudice talking, but I think that the white straight people dying of AIDS are largely IV drug users.

[Rob Beschizza]

I'm told that it was basically brushed under the carptet here in the U.S. until white straight normal people started dying of it.
I haven't seen any statistics on this, so in this case it's just my prejudice talking, but I think that the white straight people dying of AIDS are largely IV drug users.

I figured that myself -- I ended up editing that line out of my post (presumably while you were replying to it), because I just wasn't sure...

[Glenn]

I haven't seen any statistics on this, so in this case it's just my prejudice talking, but I think that the white straight people dying of AIDS are largely IV drug users.

I had a math teacher that once demonstrated that a white, heterosexual, drug-free American is more likely to be struck by lightning than infected with AIDS. He did this as a statistics problem on the board, working off census data and some gov't report on AIDS(I think CDC, but this was six-seven years ago). People were pissed.

edited to make my grammar less retardly

[Andrew Mayer]

I figured that out once when I was dating a college student. They'd posted all this figures in the bathroom at her school and I reversed the numbers, since I had a few minutes to myself in there. I realized that the number for white males who didn't shoot drugs was basically as small as makes no odds.

It did seem to upset people to hear that.