Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site aecom.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!teddy!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!cmcl2!rna!rocky2!cucard!aecom!werner From: werner@aecom.UUCP Newsgroups: net.med Subject: Re: re: A Lay question about AIDS? (Why Gays?) Message-ID: <1104@aecom.UUCP> Date: Thu, 17-Jan-85 13:01:08 EST Article-I.D.: aecom.1104 Posted: Thu Jan 17 13:01:08 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 20-Jan-85 05:08:24 EST References: <182@ttidcc.UUCP><8211@watarts.UUCP> Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY Lines: 43 > >From: molefeuvre@watarts.UUCP (Michael O LeFeuvre) > >Subject: A Lay question about AIDS? > > > > 1. Why is it so specific to male homosexuals? I realize other > > people do get it, but the dominant group is gays, a very > > minority goup of the population. > I know of two theories on this point. One seems reasonable, the other > frighteningly paranoid. > > Paranoid: > It is rumored that AIDS may be part of a biological-warfare experiment > being performed by our own military. The rumor contends they are testing a > virus that attacks only people with certain specific body chemistry. > The Polymath (Jerry Hollombe) Where do people come up with these things? The virus has been around Africa for years, and does not solely affect gays there. It is passed, both in Africa and among non-Gays in the US (mostly IV drug users) much more efficiently from men to women than from women to men, mostly because semen contains cells that could be infected with the virus (as does in some people, saliva). Hence it would, for similar reasons, pass efficiently from men to men. It's not actually gays, per se, it's only sexually active gays, and they are also highly overrepresented among a whole variety of rare diseases, mostly sexually transmitted ones, but also hepatitis, etc. Also, remember, one of the first AIDS victims back in 1977 admitted having over 2000 sexual partners (I think in the previous year alone, but that number may be over several). A few people like that and that's all you need for a major epidemic. Conclusion: given the mode of transmission of the virus (in blood, semen and saliva) and the fact that healthy carriers can pass the disease, and given the promiscuity of a visible subgroup of the gay population, it's not really much of a suprise (now anyway that more is known) that gays are overrepresented among AIDS victims. -- Craig Werner !philabs!aecom!werner What do you expect? Watermelons are out of season!