For whatever reason, HIV threads do very poorly here. It's sad and one of the things that truly bugs me (pardon the pun) about LPSG and the gay community in general.
Very good point jason. One that is not lost in my own observations (which is why I have not posted many, of the numerous articles and reports I have come across, to this forum).
I think what novice_btm said above is more the reason though. For those who would normally care- or have an opinion one way or the other -about this very terrible affliction, viewing or commenting on threads like this/about it, might be viewed as an exercise in futility. If for no other reason than- as novice_btm pointed out -none of the other supposed hopeful or promising discovers ever panned out to anything more then the announcement itself. Beyond that, for me there is always this sneaky- and mind you very often unsubstatiated -suspicion that there are some forces at work that appear to be hindering progress- on the HIV/AIDS front -overall.
Come to think of it, I can't remember that last major disease to be "cured" or "eradicated", ever since medical/pharmaceutical industries became as powerful as they are now. The only thing that comes close- and that I can recall -was that discovery back in the 90's that the majority of stomach ulcers were actually caused by a bacteria- not by stress or spicy food -and simply required only a short treatment of antibiotics to be rid of them. Back then, though, one of the doctors involved in the original discovery literally had to prove it by infecting himself with the bacteria- thereby ulcerating his own stomach -and go through the treatments himself, just because of the incredible resistance and disbelief from the aformentioned industries about it. Now I concede to be ignorant of a lot of things, but it does not take that big of a stretch to figure out why there was so much resisitance. In fact, in the
wikipedia entry for this very issue, it states:
"In 1997, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with other government agencies, academic institutions, and industry, launched a national education campaign to inform health care providers and consumers about the link between H. pylori and ulcers. This campaign reinforced the news that ulcers are a curable infection, and that health can be greatly improved and money saved by disseminating information about H. pylori."
Anyway, I'll leave my conspiracy theories for another time, lol. My point ultimately is that I hope this discovery turns out to be the one we need to eradicate this awful plague on human dignity, and that any negative forces- both real and imagined -don't interfere with its potential/progress.
Regards,
T.D.
Ciao-
