I see it has been a busy day on this thread. Some of you have posted some very good replies. Others still insist on posting fantasy. I've seen some of you try to twist what others have posted in order to at credence to a deviant life style. I see were WorldWatcher posted some relevant information on aids. His article is accurate. However I think that the rest of that story should be posted.
"The history of HIV/AIDS in the United States began in about 1969, when HIV likely entered the United States through a single infected immigrant from Haiti.[2] In the early 1980s, doctors in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco began seeing young men with Kaposi's Sarcoma, a cancer usually associated with elderly men of Mediterranean ethnicity.
As the knowledge that men who had sex with men were dying of an otherwise rare cancer began to spread throughout the medical communities, the syndrome began to be called by the colloquialism "gay cancer." As medical scientists discovered that the syndrome included other manifestations, such as pneumocystis pneumonia, (PCP), a rare form of fungal pneumonia, its name was changed to "GRID," or Gay Related Immune Deficiency.[3] This had an effect of boosting homophobia and adding stigma to homosexuality in the general public, particularly since it seemed that unprotected anal sex was the prevalent way of spreading the disease.
Within the medical community, it quickly became apparent that the disease was not specific to men who have sex with men (as blood transfusion patients, intravenous drug users, heterosexual and bisexual women, and newborn babies became added to the list of afflicted), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) renamed the syndrome AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) in 1982.
AIDS continues to be a problem with illegal sex workers and injecting drug users. The main route of transmission for women is through heterosexual sex, and the main risk factor for them is non-protection and the undisclosed risky behaviour of their sexual partners. Experts attribute this to "AIDS fatigue" among younger people who have no memory of the worst phase of the epidemic in the 1980s and early 1990s, as well as "condom fatigue" among those who have grown tired of and disillusioned with the unrelenting safer sex message.[citation needed] This trend is of major concern to public health workers.[citation needed]
In a 2008 study, the Center for Disease Control found that, of the study participants who were men who had sex with men ("MSM"), almost one in five (19%) had HIV and "among those who were infected, nearly half (44 percent) were unaware of their HIV status." The research found that those who are white MSM "represent a greater number of new HIV infections than any other population, followed closely by black MSM who are one of the most disproportionately affected subgroups in the U.S" and that most new infections among white MSM occurred among those aged 30-39 followed closely by those aged 40-49, while most new infections among black MSM have occurred among young black MSM (aged 13-29).[25][26]"
HIV/AIDS in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I would advise clicking on the link so that you can read this article in it full context. This article talks of shared lifestyle risk factors. It tells us anyone can get aids, and for any number of reasons. That doesn't matter. What does matter is that HIV, is spread though direct contact with blood. That one factor is of most interest to those involved in combat.
Blood is listed by civilian first responders as the most dangerous substance on an accident scene. Would anyone care to guess why? Blood is the most common substance on the battlefield. A Soldier, Sailor, Marine, Air Man/ Woman, or Coast Guardsman, shouldn't have to worry about facing more life threatening situations then already exist. They shouldn't have to worry about surviving the horrors of combat, and then dying needlessly.
From what I've seen written here most of you could care less about the lives, or well being of American Service Men, and Women.
