Thailand In Crisis: At Least One Person Becomes H I V-Positive Every Hour

[billd766]

I went to this site to get a population estimate for Thailand.

http://worldpopulationreview.com/thailand-population-2012/

They estimate 67,000,000 but I used 66,000,000 as a reasonable figure.

Using the figure of 44% of Thais are infected that is close to 29,000,000 people.

Really?

I suspect that the figures may be a tad in error somewhere down the line or the translation came out wrongly.

[simple1]

catweazle got it right ! i was positive twice, once after a flu and once after an infection. refused AZT therapy. alive and kicking - negative !

WOW!!! Life proof - thank you so much. I had so many endless discussions about this and know that I for A) should be dead myself by now and B ) "hell yeah!" would absolutely positively reject any medication offered by those <Snip> white coats and simply do more sports and drop alcohol and fast food. Hopefully the full extend of the AIDS scam is exposed on a worldwide basis soon. Btw. I also don't know any of the hookers I ever have known dying of AIDS, but dying other ways like getting electricuted in the shower, run over by a truck, bike accident, one got shot, etc. but none died of AIDS. One girlfriend of a girl I knew was said to be dying of aids some 12 years ago. When I asked for the medication, it was AZT. She died of a lung infection, because the AZT <snip> up her metabolism and her immune system, not AIDS!

Music recommendation: White Coats - from New Model Army - let the lyrics open your eyes!

You need to do a bit more research. Contracting HIV that then transmutes to AIDS, eats away at the body's immune system and sufferers die due to lower resistance to infections, virus cancer etc not from AIDS itself. This is what happened to a very good gay friend of mine in the early 1990s. He had a very unpleasant and slow death.

[Toscano]

Several people mention sex edication in schools . I believe sex education encourages girls to find out about and experience this thing called sex .

In rural areas almost every village has at least one goodtime motel . I am told that it is common practice for schoolgirls to provide the sexual sevice , bt300 .

Does Thailand have a problem , pretending that it is not sexually orientated , not a No.1 destination for sex holidays of all persuasions , no pornography ?

As in most other countries , it seems that drug users and homosexual men who don't use a condom are the primary passers and contractors of HIV .

[uptheos]

Really no condom vending machines, geez stand at the front counter of any 7 eleven and what do you see? Condoms in easy reach and view of children.

Gets confusing being so close to the chewing gum!

[aguy30]

"Half a million have Aids virus but numbers adding up every hour; campaigns hamstrung by government indifference"

If this article is typical of what the government is capable of doing in the AIDS battle, then the problem isn't indifference, it is incompetance. The story and graph lumps HIV and AIDS in one. Many HIV positive people never reach the transition to AIDS.

Much of the graphic and article does not make sense. Was this even prepared by a medical professional?

What is that "HIV cases based on on risk" profile? Relates to what?

One infection every hour is 9473 per year. Only 533 this year to Nov 13. If it was more than 7600 then 1 every hour would make sense.

The graph on top shown by age doesn't make sense without some explanation.

"It is estimated that about 80 per cent of new cases are caused by unprotected sex and about 300,000 people have the tendency to be carriers of the virus." A tendency to carry the virus? Seems that if you carry the virus, then you have HIV and if you don't carry then you don't have HIV.

Edited November 29, 2012 by aguy30

[catweazle]

catweazle got it right ! i was positive twice, once after a flu and once after an infection. refused AZT therapy. alive and kicking - negative !

WOW!!! Life proof - thank you so much. I had so many endless discussions about this and know that I for A) should be dead myself by now and B ) "hell yeah!" would absolutely positively reject any medication offered by those <Snip> white coats and simply do more sports and drop alcohol and fast food. Hopefully the full extend of the AIDS scam is exposed on a worldwide basis soon. Btw. I also don't know any of the hookers I ever have known dying of AIDS, but dying other ways like getting electricuted in the shower, run over by a truck, bike accident, one got shot, etc. but none died of AIDS. One girlfriend of a girl I knew was said to be dying of aids some 12 years ago. When I asked for the medication, it was AZT. She died of a lung infection, because the AZT <snip> up her metabolism and her immune system, not AIDS!

Music recommendation: White Coats - from New Model Army - let the lyrics open your eyes!

You need to do a bit more research. Contracting HIV that then transmutes to AIDS, eats away at the body's immune system and sufferers die due to lower resistance to infections, virus cancer etc not from AIDS itself. This is what happened to a very good gay friend of mine in the early 1990s. He had a very unpleasant and slow death.

Yepp and back then in 1990 he to 100% sure was on AZT what kills the immune system and eventually killed your friend. AIDS is nothing more than a collection of all symptoms and disease patterns that people show who either are weakened by drug use, malnutrition, extreme poisoning due to alcohol abuse and abuse of other substances, etc. - then they wrapped it up and called it AIDS after they found out that these patterns are reflected by a specific blood count. If you are already a junkie, living a bad lifestyle, sleep deprevation, extended sexual intercourse with changing partners and subsequently catching other sexually transmitted diseases, etc. already weakening your immune system to point blank, and then - on top of it all - catching a simple flu or something can destroy the blood count to the required numbers for the AIDS test to kick in. Then: Refuse the treatment with deadly medicine, change life style and habits for the better and live - or: Take the whitecoat medicine and die!

Talking about wrapping up the disease patterns and giving it a name... Does this remind any reader here about what Goldmann Sucks did with all those bad credits they sold to any beggar of whom they knew he could never pay it back? They took them all (and more from other banks) wrapped the whole $hite and named it ABACUS (even starts with the same letter), put it into the stock market, sold that crap to their own clients and watched as it spontaneously combusted and killed the livelihood and savings of millions, while Goldmann Sucks got rich betting against their own evil construct?

Wake up for Pete's sake!!!!!!!!!! This is the age of information and the internet - the truth is out there! Read and understand that you are fooled by governments and media. AIDS, ABACUS and similar constructs are just the tip of the iceberg. If you'd know what really is going on and take in the truth, we would not need AIDS or wars as half of the population would kill itself anyway because they could not take it, realizing that everything they have been told, taught at school and read in newspapers and history books was nothing but a big pack of lies. This is why the Elite keeps people down - because most of us are too ignorant and stupid to see and understand the greather picture!

[wcoast]

Can't believe how some of you are downplaying this article and AIDs in general. Scaremongering is dam_n necessary to drill the consequences home to people, most of which as the article states think it will never happen to them. And exponential infection is a staggering reality. People are dying and infecting others at an extreme rate, the numbers speak for themselves if even only partially correct. This is a deadly epidemic and the human cost is staggering.

[kingstonkid]

NO MATTER HOW YOU LOOK AT IT AIDS/HIV SUCKS 1 is too many lost a brother in law to it. As to condom machines in school HELL they don't allow them in the US.

I also dispute the virginity thing but it is a number that Ihave seen in the states and other areas. Main cause is poverty and low education. The kids at good schgools get the info loud and clear from teachers and peers.

It is thoe at home that have no education adn do not know about condoms and such. I can tellyou that all the boys adn girls I teach Mat 4 and 5 know all about condoms, beer and party. LOL

[antpet]

I too am pretty stunned at the ignorance displayed by so many posters.

Here we are, 30 years down the line of aids infections, and the mass of general ignorance has not reduced.

Some simple facts for the simple minded: unprotected sex equals risk. Protected sex equals less risk.

Anal sex, male on male, highest risk. Lesser risk anal sex male female. Hetero sex, i.e. vaginal sex, least risk so far.

No known case of oral sex transmission.

Anal sex equals highest risk as the lining of the rhectum is more easily torn allowing for bleading allowing for infection. Hence, less tearing in vaginal sex equals less chance of infection. Got that? Oh, an for those of you thinking to ramp up [literally] the KY the tearing is miniscule, you won't see it and you won't reduce it.

Figures any one? Male male anal sex: 1 in a 1000. Gays die sure but it takes 1:1000 to catch it. Lot of rear entries there then. More likely to die from a rhectumoscopy [ that is a trailing rhectum dragging along the floor behind you] than AIDS.

Vaginal unprotected sex 1 in 3000. That's about 8 times a day for a year. And yes I know most of you are sagely nodding that's about your average. Well 8 to 10 a day since you gave up the viagra.

The Doctors don't tell you that. The Health authoriities world wide don't tell you that either.

The research papers do. But they are like the big papers that you never bought as they didn't have a picture inside of a woman with her tits out. No red top either.

The reason it is not publicised is it gives the impression it is difficult to catch. It is. A bit like a 40 pound pike. You could spend a life time trying. Some of you do. It's called dipping your wick in the water.

HIV / AIDS is difficult to catch. Ronnie Biggs of the deseases world. A boy from brazil. Though I've a feeling some of you are thinking of a boy from buriram that you had a dabble with and urged him to go a lot faster ....... an he did. Could be a more expensive night than the drinks and bar fine you paid.

The facts are that millions have caught and died from it and will continue to do so. That explains the 'She doesn't work here anymore' or the ' she go home.' I've never heard anyone saying proudly ' Hey, you remember Noy. That Noy I used to bar fine? Died of Aids Tuesday.' Actually never heard it boasted across the bar but I've heard the screaming and wailing once they do find out it's aids. That is HIV infected. More confusion.

Then there's you .................. I know of no one who has ever maintained a protected sex [condom use] regime. Of all my friends and aquaintences they all have confessed to having unprotected sex with some bar girl at some time. None of them has over a ten year period contracted HIV. One particular good time charlie even used to go through a different girl a day and on the day he was due to fly home bought the largest single anti-biotic pill he could find an dtake that. He believed it would 'see off' everything ahead of going home and shagging his wife. Needless to say, he's no longer with us, but there's no official confirmation of what happens when such people 'disappear.' They just drop off the radar. I expect if you wrack your brain you can account for a few.

The statistics would bear this out.

My own sexual behaviour is to always use a condom. Protected sex equalling less risk. Two condoms even adding to fewer risk. I only have sex with my partner. We had regular blood tests [6 monthly] at a hospital and received the results within the hour. We maintain a monogomous relationship, abandoned the tests but maintain protected sex usage. It's called being responsible. Being safe.

That is safe sex.

If you do not follow such a regime you increase the risk. Increased partners whose sexual activity is not known equals increased risk. Yes I know you always take a nice girl and anyway 'she's not like that.' But the fact is some one is taking the nice girl who with other men is taking it up the rear unprotected becaus ethe money is twice what you pay. And it's all about the money. I know it hurts your feelings to think that but take comfort that it doesn't hurt her. She's quite used to it; most likely from the age of 3 when mom's boyfriend first started to show his affections for her. After all, why do you think these girls are so compliant ......... because they love you?

If you happen to live in the west you will not die from Aids but will have a drug dependant lifestyle should you contract HIV. If you are Thai you will die from Aids within 10 years. The death itself is harrowing. Think of the worst cancer death you've seen and remove the medication; that's the average Aids death. They go slowly, drained of life, reduced to a skin like bag from which the bones stick out, turning black, eyes buried deep within the skull, dried out, cogent and lingering; forever lingering until that last breath.

It is absolutely harrowing to witness. And it is so slow. Slowly excruciating to watch. I won't attempt to describe the smell. Let that be a surprise. They say it has a smell of death. I wonder if that is what death smells like. Or just an Aids death. The body decomposing from the inside out.

Hence, long before I ever came to a place where HIV infections were rampant; where infections were guaranteed though it remained simply a matter of statistics whether you'd be infected or not; where active working prostitutes were found on every corner and men travelled continents purely to have sex with the working locals; where all cultures mixed; shared the same partners; and, some cultures didn't practice safe sex and so encouraged the spread of the desease; to me it seemed absolute madness to ever indulge in unsafe sex.

I have heard old men talk of 'if I got it I'd die before it could kill me.' I'm still trying to understand that one. A 10 year incubation is a max. It can turn AIDS at any time. I've seen people shrug. I've seen many people express total ignorance. I had one friend, now dead, who asked me for info. as he'd been having unprotected sex and then asked me how did you catch aids?

Unbelievable ignorance yet that is the reality.

Personally, I don't care about the salvation of others. I do believe in freedom of choice.

I choose life any time. Some of you clearly don't. But that choice is yours. The fact is many of you reading this do not know whether you are infected or not. It is not easy to ascertain the truth. Tests need to be repeated over a clinically pristine period of 6 months - two tests. During that period you have to ensure that you have not had unprotected sex. Any partner must be tested along with you whether having safe or unsafe sex.

This is an area in which you can not take anyone's word. Hence dual testing.

I would encourage you to something about testing and also about your own sexual responsibility.

We talk of being 'first world' This is an area in which we all need to show it.

[kingstonkid]

catweazle got it right ! i was positive twice, once after a flu and once after an infection. refused AZT therapy. alive and kicking - negative !

WOW!!! Life proof - thank you so much. I had so many endless discussions about this and know that I for A) should be dead myself by now and B ) "hell yeah!" would absolutely positively reject any medication offered by those<Snip> white coats and simply do more sports and drop alcohol and fast food. Hopefully the full extend of the AIDS scam is exposed on a worldwide basis soon. Btw. I also don't know any of the hookers I ever have known dying of AIDS, but dying other ways like getting electricuted in the shower, run over by a truck, bike accident, one got shot, etc. but none died of AIDS. One girlfriend of a girl I knew was said to be dying of aids some 12 years ago. When I asked for the medication, it was AZT. She died of a lung infection, because the AZT <snip> up her metabolism and her immune system, not AIDS!

Music recommendation: White Coats - from New Model Army - let the lyrics open your eyes!

You need to do a bit more research. Contracting HIV that then transmutes to AIDS, eats away at the body's immune system and sufferers die due to lower resistance to infections, virus cancer etc not from AIDS itself. This is what happened to a very good gay friend of mine in the early 1990s. He had a very unpleasant and slow death.

Yepp and back then in 1990 he to 100% sure was on AZT what kills the immune system and eventually killed your friend. AIDS is nothing more than a collection of all symptoms and disease patterns that people show who either are weakened by drug use, malnutrition, extreme poisoning due to alcohol abuse and abuse of other substances, etc. - then they wrapped it up and called it AIDS after they found out that these patterns are reflected by a specific blood count. If you are already a junkie, living a bad lifestyle, sleep deprevation, extended sexual intercourse with changing partners and subsequently catching other sexually transmitted diseases, etc. already weakening your immune system to point blank, and then - on top of it all - catching a simple flu or something can destroy the blood count to the required numbers for the AIDS test to kick in. Then: Refuse the treatment with deadly medicine, change life style and habits for the better and live - or: Take the whitecoat medicine and die!

Talking about wrapping up the disease patterns and giving it a name... Does this remind any reader here about what Goldmann Sucks did with all those bad credits they sold to any beggar of whom they knew he could never pay it back? They took them all (and more from other banks) wrapped the whole $hite and named it ABACUS (even starts with the same letter), put it into the stock market, sold that crap to their own clients and watched as it spontaneously combusted and killed the livelihood and savings of millions, while Goldmann Sucks got rich betting against their own evil construct?

Wake up for Pete's sake!!!!!!!!!! This is the age of information and the interet - the truth is out there! Read and understand that you are fooled by governments and media. AIDS, ABACUS and similar constructs are just the tip of the iceberg. If you'd know what really is going on and take in the truth, we would not need AIDS or wars as half of the population would kill itself because they could not take the truth, realizing that everything they have been told, taught at school and read in newspapers were nothing but lies. This is why the Elite keeps people down - because most are too ignorant and stupid to see and understand the greather picture!

CAT WEAZLE and you are an expert on this HOW. GIVE ME A FREAKIN BREAK.

If you know the history ist was a bug that was being developed in Africa not sure if it wsa for good or bad that got out of hand.

[ChiTownHustla]

Didn't you wonder why it was so quiet for a long time about AIDS? Didn't you wonder why all of the AIDS positive people who refused medication and changed their life style to non-smoking, no drugs, no alcohol and sports were ALL negative 3 months later and survived the "deadly" disease?

You cant be serious....

[adam1]

Good to see a variety of opinions on here as usual - I didn't really want to respond to the screaming headline which arrived in my inbox but this is a really interesting and important topic. Catweazle and others may be onto something. I recently watched the nobel prize winner Luc Montagnier (the guy who "jointly" discovered HIV - apparently) saying that HIV can be gotten rid of by a healthy immune system - and that we can be exposed to it many times. He recommends a healthy diet, cleanliness etc. Just watch it on Youtube.

So, there you go, straight from the horses mouth and a directly opposing viewpoint to the "irreversible death sentence" ideas most of us have had foisted upon us about HIV.

Then there's the "presumptive" testing, which hands out the "death sentence diagnosis" without a blood test. Unbelievable but true, a recommended protocol even!

The definition of AIDS itself is a ludicrous politicised litany of many other diseases.

You can be HIV positive in one country, then cross over the border and be HIV negative. Unbelievable but true.

The whole HIV/AIDS topic deserves your attention, as it is starting to show up all the signs of a major clusterf***.

I have not reached definitive conclusions on the matter, so would welcome other opinion, especially as I have two good friends currently "diagnosed" as positive. Would appreciate it if you could remain polite however, haha

[catweazle]

Good to see a variety of opinions on here as usual - I didn't really want to respond to the screaming headline which arrived in my inbox but this is a really interesting and important topic. Catweazle and others may be onto something. I recently watched the nobel prize winner Luc Montagnier (the guy who "jointly" discovered HIV - apparently) saying that HIV can be gotten rid of by a healthy immune system - and that we can be exposed to it many times. He recommends a healthy diet, cleanliness etc. Just watch it on Youtube.

So, there you go, straight from the horses mouth and a directly opposing viewpoint to the "irreversible death sentence" ideas most of us have had foisted upon us about HIV.

Then there's the "presumptive" testing, which hands out the "death sentence diagnosis" without a blood test. Unbelievable but true, a recommended protocol even!

The definition of AIDS itself is a ludicrous politicised litany of many other diseases.

You can be HIV positive in one country, then cross over the border and be HIV negative. Unbelievable but true.

The whole HIV/AIDS topic deserves your attention, as it is starting to show up all the signs of a major clusterf***.

I have not reached definitive conclusions on the matter, so would welcome other opinion, especially as I have two good friends currently "diagnosed" as positive. Would appreciate it if you could remain polite however, haha

Thank you, Adam!!! Thanks!!!!

[camo007]

Here are ten facts every person diagnosed as HIV-positive has a right to know (click on the words in green for quick references)…

FACT #1: There is strong evidence that the HIV test you took is very often wrong. We have found over fifty different scientific studies listing seventy non-HIV conditions that can make the test produce false positive results. Depending on which test you took, they have been proven to be wrong as much as 90% of the time. So you might not be HIV-positive at all.

FACT #2: The HIV test you took was not a test for AIDS, or even a test for HIV. Despite what we’ve all been told, it was a simple test to find certain antibodies in your blood — an “HIV-antibody” test. But viral antibodies alone do not indicate a current infection. In fact, in virtually every other antibody test, to be positive for the antibodies means that you had exposure to or a prior virus infection and are nowimmune from the disease that virus could cause. Antibody protection is the basis for the practice of vaccinations, like gaining immunity against the flu with a flu shot. There are no studies that show why we should think any differently about antibodies to HIV. A growing number of experts now believe that testing HIV-antibody-positive actually means that you have successfully created what your body needs to defeatany HIV infection, not to make you sick!

FACT #3: No HIV test, whether it uses blood, urine or saliva, has ever been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the specific intended purpose of diagnosing infection with HIV.

FACT #4: The HIV test you took has never been “validated,” as was normally done in the past. That means that there has never been a group of people who tested HIV-positive who were then proven to have active HIV (not just the antibodies) in their blood. Conversely, there has also never been a group who tested HIV-negative and were proven not to have active HIV in their blood. This lack of test validation raises serious questions about the validity of your positive diagnosis.

FACT #5: The proteins used in the HIV test kits have never been proven to be unique or specific for HIV. In fact, every one of the proteins used in the test has been found to be associated with conditions that have nothing to do with HIV — and many of these proteins have nothing to do with illness of any kind. In other words, scientific evidence cannot prove that a positive HIV test means that you have HIV or AIDS or any other health problem, and it says so right on every test package. Most doctors giving the test and most people taking the test never see this disclaimer.

FACT #6: Nineteen samples of the same blood were sent to nineteen different laboratories for a Western Blot test, and they all came back with different results. 525 samples of the same blood of an ELISA-Positive test were sent to 525 different laboratories for a Western Blot confirmation, and came back with very different results. One blood sample was sent to the same lab 44 times and came back withdifferent results. This means that your test results could have been different if they had been done in a different laboratory.

See more: http://helpforhiv.com/

I personally have witnessed a huge amount of false positive results in Thailand.

[vibz]

My husband was given 3 mths to live after a cancer diagnosis, but died 12 yrs later...aids is no different, depends on the individual's makeup.

[simple1]

Good to see a variety of opinions on here as usual - I didn't really want to respond to the screaming headline which arrived in my inbox but this is a really interesting and important topic. Catweazle and others may be onto something. I recently watched the nobel prize winner Luc Montagnier (the guy who "jointly" discovered HIV - apparently) saying that HIV can be gotten rid of by a healthy immune system - and that we can be exposed to it many times. He recommends a healthy diet, cleanliness etc. Just watch it on Youtube.

So, there you go, straight from the horses mouth and a directly opposing viewpoint to the "irreversible death sentence" ideas most of us have had foisted upon us about HIV.

Then there's the "presumptive" testing, which hands out the "death sentence diagnosis" without a blood test. Unbelievable but true, a recommended protocol even!

The definition of AIDS itself is a ludicrous politicised litany of many other diseases.

You can be HIV positive in one country, then cross over the border and be HIV negative. Unbelievable but true.

The whole HIV/AIDS topic deserves your attention, as it is starting to show up all the signs of a major clusterf***.

I have not reached definitive conclusions on the matter, so would welcome other opinion, especially as I have two good friends currently "diagnosed" as positive. Would appreciate it if you could remain polite however, haha

You should undertake further research on the assertions by Luc Montagnier.

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/11/23/luc-montagnier-the-nobel-disease-strikes/

http://www.houseofnumbers.com/site/

[diehard60]

The article is realy supposed to scare us. But if the Thai minirty is so concerned about this, why does the Thai government and education separtments STOP promoting gays? Why does the TAT stop promoting prostitution?

[DGS1244]

catweazle got it right ! i was positive twice, once after a flu and once after an infection. refused AZT therapy. alive and kicking - negative !

Thought that Catweazle was one prat now I see there are at least two. Stop talking about AIDS and think HIV, that is definitely a virus, as an past chemical pathologist I know. I have seen a number of girls/ladies, call them what you will, dying from AIDS related illnesses. Visit some of the orphanages looking after HIV positive children. every month a few die and are replaced by even more. The original report would have made more sense if it had given a breakdown of the activities causing HIV i.e. heterosexual, bisexual etc. I have a feeling that 'bar girls' are the least of the worries. Try grown up Thai men who love there Mia Noi and still have extras on the side, try to get them to use condoms, no hope.

[SANDRAG]

I think Thailand should stop hiding the facts ´´ prostitution is illegal´´ but it is the country with the most sex tourism in the world. Make prostitution a legal job like in Belgium, this way you can control it. Let them go to the doctor every month and they need to advertise the health certificate. Make the brothels legal with legal consequences etc...

Get more education on the subject, and as advertised here that 90% of the sex workers use condoms is bullshit. The profession does not exist so how do they know????

[sirchai]

Several people mention sex edication in schools . I believe sex education encourages girls to find out about and experience this thing called sex .

In rural areas almost every village has at least one goodtime motel . I am told that it is common practice for schoolgirls to provide the sexual sevice , bt300 .

Does Thailand have a problem , pretending that it is not sexually orientated , not a No.1 destination for sex holidays of all persuasions , no pornography ?

As in most other countries , it seems that drug users and homosexual men who don't use a condom are the primary passers and contractors of HIV .

"This thing called sex" is a part of our lives and kids should be educated to understand what behavior's spreading diseases, or causing pregnancy. We're talking about a country, where some girls have sex with ladyboys not knowing that they can get pregnant.

There're no 'good or badtime" motels for teens to have sex in each village.

You were told that schoolgirls provide sex for 300 baht? This is not common here.

Sexual education should be provided by parents and teachers, don't you think so?----

[rayw]

Wow one every hours !!! That is 12 people every day or 4380 a year, and they call that an epidemic !!!! As a ratio of a Thai population of about 60 million, that is then 60,000,000 / 4380 or a 1 in 13698 chance of any one person catching it each year (and remember the population changes with births and deaths each year too). Hardly an epidemic surely. Also those that do catch HIV generally take far more risks than most of us (and no I do not just mean unprotected normal heterosexual sex) so a normal persons chance of catching HIV is extremely low and in fact far less than getting killed or maimed crossing a busy street here in Thailand or say riding a motorbike here.

Remember that the figure of one every hour is still massively a statistic that is biased heavily to gay sex and intravenous drug users. No I do not have the figures to hand so don't ask, nor the time to look it up to back that statement up, but I am pretty sure that is the case, so feel free to Google some hard facts from an objective and sensible site (no not say the highly biased and restrictive catholic church science laboratory site or whatever). So should we stop crossing the road or stop riding motorbikes which are far far more dangerous to our health, as well as stop unprotected normal hetero sex?? Sure if you do engage in gay sex or even hetero anal sex or inject drugs then sure you should really change your lifestyle and at least ensure you then take protection if you care about yourself. As for the majority of us then take care for sure but do not be frightened into not being able to have an enjoyable fulfilling sex life if say you are one of those who truly cannot use condoms. But scare mongering of a virus that is extremely very difficult to catch and highly unlikely for a normal person to catch should be considered in true honest perspective and not blown out of all reasonable proportions. So just use your head and if you can avoid taking unnecessary high risks of course.

Sure I know every case of HIV is a personal disaster and extremely sad for the poor souls who catch it, and indeed nobody deserves to catch such an infection, even a drug addict for goodness sake as they are still frail human beings like the rest of us. Be great when there is a vaccine against it that we can all get cheaply and of course when there is a total and affordable cure. No I am not advocating an orgy of unprotected sex (fun though that must be !!), but conversely if you are sensible and careful about your partners and like many who find protected sex unfulfilling or even impossible then this is no reason to lower your and your partners' enjoyment of pleasurable sex life. So if sex with a condom is perfectly okay for you and workable, then sure carry on using them as it makes perfect sense of course. However if you are like many and just cannot use condoms with any success then just be careful and use your head and either lead a life of abstinence from more than one partner sex or know and keep the level of risk to a very low and tolerably acceptable level for you and your partners.. If you do take even such a very very low risk then it is still of course possible to get infected, just always be aware of that but keep it in factual perspective and be aware that you should be far more concerned and put far more priority into carefully crossing the road or riding a motorbike here. Far far more risk of sexually transmitted Hepatitis than HIV too, but you CAN at least sensibly get vaccinated against that.

I heard from a knowledgeable STD senior doctor some 10 years ago that statistically if you had totally unprotected normal genital sex with a fully blown AIDS victim, it is so hard to get infected from normal hetero sex that it would take having such sex 1000 times on average for a male to catch HIV from such an infected woman or 500 times for a woman to catch it off of a fully infected male AIDS victim. But he responsibly added that it is purely a statistical average and it could happen the very first time of course, though you would or should generally know from all external signs if a person has full blown AIDS or not. If they have only HIV at that stage of their illness then you may not know that for sure, but then again the chances of getting infected from them with normal unprotected sex is then massively decreased to a much less than the average stated of once every 1000 (or 500) times.

So please no silly flaming as I am not being irresponsible or selfish or even stupid but just trying to present the facts in a completely open minded and honest way from all I have learned and deducted about this subject (though by no means an expert of course), and to try to put things into a less media sensationalistic perspective.. Sure HIV is a real factual problem and not a myth and something we should all be fully aware of and make our decisions accordingly and responsibly. But it is not anything like an epidemic as is sensationally claimed, even in Thailand, and indeed the published figures themselves do not add up to it being so. Sure even 1 person infected in a year is one too many of course and an intolerable disaster for that person's life. Positive feedback and factual comments to add to our communal real knowledge are welcomed,of course, but crappy self opinionated flaming will, as it should, just be rightfully ignored as always. This is NOT about morals and religions and myths but about facts and truth so lets sensibly keep it that way.

Finally. remember it is down to each person whether or not to take risks, and only for others to educate them on the unexaggerated true risks, not the over sensationalist rhetoric that we all have to endure, It takes both partners (or maybe more individuals if you like more adventurous sex ) to agree willingly to have unprotected sex, so it is entirely up to them to know and accept the risks. if you personally want to be remain virtually 100% safe and sure then that is rightfully down to you to decide to always use good protection, like a condom, and never have unprotected sex. That is your decision and yours alone to make such a judgement call, or not of course.

Edited November 29, 2012 by rayw

[Dr Robert]

Here are ten facts every person diagnosed as HIV-positive has a right to know (click on the words in green for quick references)…

FACT #1: There is strong evidence that the HIV test you took is very often wrong. We have found over fifty different scientific studies listing seventy non-HIV conditions that can make the test produce false positive results. Depending on which test you took, they have been proven to be wrong as much as 90% of the time. So you might not be HIV-positive at all.

FACT #2: The HIV test you took was not a test for AIDS, or even a test for HIV. Despite what we’ve all been told, it was a simple test to find certain antibodies in your blood — an “HIV-antibody” test. But viral antibodies alone do not indicate a current infection. In fact, in virtually every other antibody test, to be positive for the antibodies means that you had exposure to or a prior virus infection and are nowimmune from the disease that virus could cause. Antibody protection is the basis for the practice of vaccinations, like gaining immunity against the flu with a flu shot. There are no studies that show why we should think any differently about antibodies to HIV. A growing number of experts now believe that testing HIV-antibody-positive actually means that you have successfully created what your body needs to defeatany HIV infection, not to make you sick!

FACT #3: No HIV test, whether it uses blood, urine or saliva, has ever been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the specific intended purpose of diagnosing infection with HIV.

FACT #4: The HIV test you took has never been “validated,” as was normally done in the past. That means that there has never been a group of people who tested HIV-positive who were then proven to have active HIV (not just the antibodies) in their blood. Conversely, there has also never been a group who tested HIV-negative and were proven not to have active HIV in their blood. This lack of test validation raises serious questions about the validity of your positive diagnosis.

FACT #5: The proteins used in the HIV test kits have never been proven to be unique or specific for HIV. In fact, every one of the proteins used in the test has been found to be associated with conditions that have nothing to do with HIV — and many of these proteins have nothing to do with illness of any kind. In other words, scientific evidence cannot prove that a positive HIV test means that you have HIV or AIDS or any other health problem, and it says so right on every test package. Most doctors giving the test and most people taking the test never see this disclaimer.

FACT #6: Nineteen samples of the same blood were sent to nineteen different laboratories for a Western Blot test, and they all came back with different results. 525 samples of the same blood of an ELISA-Positive test were sent to 525 different laboratories for a Western Blot confirmation, and came back with very different results. One blood sample was sent to the same lab 44 times and came back withdifferent results. This means that your test results could have been different if they had been done in a different laboratory.

See more: http://helpforhiv.com/

I personally have witnessed a huge amount of false positive results in Thailand.

"fact"1. The literature you quote is at least 15 years out of date. There have been enormous advances since then that invalidate the article and your assertions

"fact" 2. HIV antibodies are only half the test. The other test is for viral load to confirm infection and rates of progression. It is actually 2 tests, the second of which validates the first

"fact" 3. that a test has not been approved by a government body does not invalidate its efficacy

"fact" 4. huh? what medication do you need that keeps you logical and lucid?

"fact" 5. So you have lost 20 kilos, you cant stay awake for longer than an hour at a time, your bed is saturated with your perspiration, you have no appetite and your frequent visits to the bathroom are only liquid. you go to your dr who tests you and says you are hiv positive. Do you a) ignore him tell him the test has never been validated and ignore him c) listen to your piffle and ignore him or d) take the drugs he or she prescribes and thank some smart people that have advanced technology enough to be given a chance to survive?

"fact" 6. notwithstanding the incredible flaws in the design of the dubious study you cite, including sample size etc etc there are huge variations in the way samples are handled and tested and in the capacity of staff ad infinitum

[Dr Robert]

fact 6 you are in dangerous territory, making stupid assertions that effect life and death decisions. have the good sense to say things that are helpful and true

[Chopperboy]

At least no men gets infected by their wives (unlike the other way round). It also seems like premarital sex is safer than after marriage.

Having casual sex is safer than being in a relationship where that relationship is not monogamous - and the reason is quite fascinating..

HIV mutates once inside a new host, at the end of one month there could be as many as 1m different genetic copies of the original HIV.

These copies are not identical to the infectious ancestral version, and hence are much less likely to transmit to another person.

The virulent ancestral version goes into hiding usually in tissue like the gut.

So if there are overlapping relationships and one person gets HIV, the ancestral copy will quickly spread to others in the group

before settling down, hiding and being replaced in circulation with the non-virulent genetically weaker copies.

This is why people have the idea that they are lucky by never catching it, even when often engaging in risky sex!

All the above is in addition to the infection bottleneck. i.e.

The ancestral copy transferring to the membrane using a sex fluid protein, colonizing and then passing through with migrating dendritic cells etc..

Edited November 29, 2012 by Chopperboy

[personchester]

"Currently, it takes at least three days to get blood-test results and many people don't bother returning to hear the results"

Sounds odd, but TIT.

Anyway I take tests every 3-4 months and always have safe sex. I get the result in about 5 minutes and costs 500 baht.

Of course this is a basic test, which can be done at any clinic. If it shows positive, then a blood test is done for conformation.

ronthai ... You can of course respond on this subject by outlining and clarifying what should be done, but you don't have to publish your personal sex activities, this is a private matter which should not be announced and declared publicly.

[koenie]

Wow one every hours !!! That is 12 people every day

OMG :-(

[DocN]

Several people mention sex edication in schools . I believe sex education encourages girls to find out about and experience this thing called sex .

In rural areas almost every village has at least one goodtime motel . I am told that it is common practice for schoolgirls to provide the sexual sevice , bt300 .

Does Thailand have a problem , pretending that it is not sexually orientated , not a No.1 destination for sex holidays of all persuasions , no pornography ?

As in most other countries , it seems that drug users and homosexual men who don't use a condom are the primary passers and contractors of HIV .

You are making absolutely no sense, you know that?

First you say, sex-ed will make girls want to find out about "sex" and then you state, that they do it with everybody, in every village, for 3000 baht?!

What now?

I had sex- ed when I was 12 and didn't have sex until I was 19...and I am a "boy"!

There is as little connection between sex- ed and having sex, as there is between Heavy Metal music and violence!

But giving them sex- ed will make them more cautious, because they then KNOW, that sex can be a dangerous thing, when done unprotected, because it actually leads to pregnancies, STD's and eventually AIDS.

I know 30 year old Thai- women, who believe that "pulling it out before you come" is an effective measure against getting pregnant!

Education is bitterly needed!

[koenie]

Here are ten facts

FACT #1:

FACT #2:

FACT #3

FACT #4:

FACT #5:

FACT #6:

Lucky you stopped after 6 ....

[Chopperboy]

I have heard old men talk of 'if I got it I'd die before it could kill me.' I'm still trying to understand that one. A 10 year incubation is a max. It can turn AIDS at any time. I've seen people shrug. I've seen many people express total ignorance. I had one friend, now dead, who asked me for info. as he'd been having unprotected sex and then asked me how did you catch aids?

Life expectancy of a young person with untreated HIV is 11 years - that plummets down to just 4.4 years for an untreated 65 year old.

This is due to the immune system already being worn down by that age (shorter telomeres on the chromosomes).

"Experts have noted for some time that people older than 50 tend to have faster disease progression and poorer immune recovery when they become infected with HIV than people who become infected at a younger age."

Edited November 29, 2012 by Chopperboy

[aguy30]

rayw: "Wow one every hours !!! That is 12 people every day or 4380 a year, and they call that an epidemic !!!!"

Just curious if you work for who ever wrote this article.

One every hour is 12 a day? Really, what planet do you live on? It is 24 hour days on this one.