Monday, August 11, 2008

A Comment on AIDS

This really is a bit beyond the admittedly vague lines of Ruminations, but I couldn't resist. The Economist has a big article about a recent big international conference on a big problem: AIDS. It turns out that after more than two decades of pouring zillions of $ into research about this horrible affliction, humanity has figured out how to stop HIV from becoming AIDS, but still has no clue about the AIDS itself. Given the ever-rising cost of preventing millions of HIV bearers from tipping over into lethal AIDS, this is a big problem.

In the meantime, however, a number of preventive measures appear ever more useful. We all know about condoms, that's not new, but apparently there are two other measures that are quite effective. The first is monogamy (surprise!). And the second is circumcision. Heh.

2 comments:

Ibrahim Ibn Yusuf said...

Ever hear about the Jewish passive gay who refused to use condoms? He said, "I'm circumcized, I have a lower risk of getting AIDS."

I myself am monogamous and faithful and use condoms, so I guess my responsible sexual behavior positions me in the segment of society whose risk of getting the disease is exactly zero.

Just in case, I'm also circumcized.

Anonymous said...

In the 80's of last century, we were educated about this dangerous AIDS. At the bottom of each slide there was the identical sentence: Best precaution: stable partnership!

Meanwhile, a neighbour of my daughter was
tested HIV positive, but believe it or not: he denies the existence of AIDS.

As Yaacov wrote: after pouring billions of dollars into education campaigns.