Here is something to consider on the way to Africa. I know the odds of getting hurt are slim but what if you need to go to the hospital after a buffalo turns you into beef jerky?


The African heterosexual AIDS myth

Michael Fumento


April 14, 2005


Ninety-nine percent of AIDS and HIV cases in Africa come from sexual transmission, virtually all heterosexual. So says the World Health Organization, with other agencies toeing the line. Massive condom airdrops accompanied by a persuasive propaganda campaign would practically make the epidemic vanish overnight. Or would it?

A determined renegade group of three scientists has fought for years – with little success – to get out the message that no more than a third of HIV transmission in Africa is from sexual intercourse and most of that is anal. By ignoring the real vectors, they say, we’re sacrificing literally millions of people.

These men are no crackpots. John Potterat is author of 140 scholarly publications. He began working for the El Paso County, Colorado health department in 1972 and initiated the first U.S. partner-tracing program for AIDS/HIV.

Stuart Brody, soon to become a full professor in Psychology at University of Paisley in Scotland, has published over 100 scholarly publications, including a book called “Sex at Risk.†Economist and anthropologist David Gisselquist has almost 60 scholarly publications and is currently advising the government of India on staunching its potentially explosive AIDS epidemic.

These renegades note that one indicator the role of vaginal transmission is overplayed in Africa is that it hasn’t played much of one in the U.S. Here 12 percent of AIDS cases are “attributed to†heterosexual transmission, meaning victims claimed to have gotten it that way. Of these, over a third are males.

Yet San Francisco epidemiologist Nancy Padian evaluated 72 male partners of HIV-infected women over several years, during which time only one man became infected. Even in that case, there were “several instances of vaginal and penile bleeding during intercourse.†So even the small U.S. heterosexual figure appears grossly exaggerated.

The chief reason it’s so hard to spread HIV vaginally is that, as biopsies of vaginal and cervical tissue show, the virus is unable to penetrate or infect healthy vaginal or cervical tissue. Various sexually transmitted diseases facilitate vaginal HIV infection, but even those appear to increase the risk only slightly.

So if vaginal intercourse can’t explain the awful African epidemic, what can? Surely it’s not homosexuality, since we’ve been told there is none in Africa. In fact, the practice has long been widespread.

For example, German anthropologist Kurt Falk reported in the 1920s that bisexuality was almost universal among the male populations of African tribes he studied. Medical records also show that African men who insist they’re straighter than the proverbial arrow often suffer transmissible anorectal diseases.

Yet almost certainly greater – and more controllable – contributors to the African epidemic are “contaminated punctures from such sources as medical injections, dental injections, surgical procedures, drawing as well as injecting blood, and rehydration through IV tubes,†says Brody.

There are many indicators that punctures play a huge role in the spread of African HIV/AIDS. For example, during the 1990s HIV increased dramatically in Zimbabwe, even as condom use increased and sexually transmitted infections rapidly fell.

Or consider that in a review of nine African studies, HIV prevalence in inpatient children ranged from 8.2% to 63% – as many as three times the prevalence in women who’d given birth. If the kids didn’t get the virus from their mothers, whence its origin?

Good people differ on exactly how much of the HIV in Africa is spread vaginally – including our three renegades themselves. Nevertheless, their findings readily belie the official figures. AIDS studies in Africa, Potterat says, are “First World researchers doing second rate science in Third World countries.â€

There’s no one reason for the mass deception. In part, once a paradigm has been established it becomes much easier to justify than challenge. “Only a handful [of researchers] are even looking at routes other than sex,†notes Potterat. He also observes that grant donors seem only interested in the sex angle. “Sex is sexy,†he says.

Brody also points out that for scientists to concede they were wrong would be “to admit they’re complicit in mass death. That’s hard to admit that to yourself, much less to other people.â€

True enough. But for the sake of millions in Africa and other underdeveloped areas threatened by massive new infections, we’d better admit it now.

Michael Fumento (fumento[at]pobox.com) is author of The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, and a nationally syndicated columnist with Scripps Howard News Service.

quote:

Yet almost certainly greater – and more controllable – contributors to the African epidemic are “contaminated punctures from such sources as medical injections, dental injections, surgical procedures, drawing as well as injecting blood, and rehydration through IV tubes,â€

The safest way to get around this problem is to bring your own syringes, IV drip tubes etc. I've always done this when travelling or hunting in Africa, and have never been questioned about it. It doesn't take up much space or weight either.

Having seen some pretty nasty hospitals/clinics in various african countrys, I wouldn't let 99% of them stick me with anything that wasn't from my own kit. Or if in a decent hospital/clinic like you will find in RSA, at least visably conferm that they are taking out syringes etc that are still sealed in their little packets.

much as I enjoy hunting anywhere in Africa when I must start to carry my own drip tubes,etc. is when I think i will quit it.

Adventurous1,

I understand your way of thinking, but bringing a small kit is no big deal. And worth it IMO.

I can tell you about one hospital we were had to go to in northern Mozambique(Isla Da Mozambique to be exact), and after wading thru the flock of lepers and other sick people with nasty illnesses, we entered a doctors office with blood on the floor, the walls and even some splattered on the ceiling. There were piles of used and unused medical equipment laying on the floor (instead of in the open, and extremely messy cabinet), and I can guarantee you that no educated person would have wanted any of that places equipment stuck into you! So IMO, it's better to be safe than sorry by bringing the basics!

Government hospitals can be pretty poor but the private hospiltals are second to none. I have been in and out of some of the most remote government hospitals looking out for my staff and although they are desperately short of medicins they are very careful about sharp objects. All needels are opened in front of the patient and bent after use.

AIDS from contaminated sharps is not a concern here in Zim. Hep b and meningitis are the infections from a lack of sterile and antiseptic tecnique (get vacinated!)

quote:

Originally posted by Ganyana:
Government hospitals can be pretty poor but the private hospiltals are second to none. I have been in and out of some of the most remote government hospitals looking out for my staff and although they are desperately short of medicins they are very careful about sharp objects. All needels are opened in front of the patient and bent after use.

AIDS from contaminated sharps is not a concern here in Zim. Hep b and meningitis are the infections from a lack of sterile and antiseptic tecnique (get vacinated!)

What about a national blood-scanning system? Is there such a program in Zim?

I do hope "Uncle Bob" is not in charge of that too.

quote:

Originally posted by nelsonted1:

So if vaginal intercourse can’t explain the awful African epidemic, what can? Surely it’s not homosexuality, since we’ve been told there is none in Africa. In fact, the practice has long been widespread.

For example, German anthropologist Kurt Falk reported in the 1920s that bisexuality was almost universal among the male populations of African tribes he studied. Medical records also show that African men who insist they’re straighter than the proverbial arrow often suffer transmissible anorectal diseases.

There is a very simple answer for the spread of HIV/AIDS throughout Africa and most of the world for that matter. And it is in the article above.

New Guy

Zimbabwe was the third country in the world to start screening all blood donations for HIV - we started nearly two years before France or the UK!. Our Blood transfusion service is not government run - Red Cross and we have never had a case of transmitssion of HIV by blood transfusion that I know of. All doners are double screened. Test 1 is an overly sensistive HIV blood test that also shows positive for HIV when the donar has bilharzia and several other tropical diseases. If this shows possitive the blood is screened again using a much more elaborate and expensive test. If this is negative, the blood is held for a month and you are called in for another blood test, just to be sure that the initial screen didn't pick up an early HIV infection. Oh and you recieve free treatment for the bilharzia or whatever else they found whilst confirming that the initial test showed anything other than HIV.

Also, All first blood donations are screened and then thrown away. The second and third donations are used for blood products that can be steralised and only when a donar has proved to be HIV free for a year is blood taken to be used by patients.

I have been a rather frequent visitor to hospitals here- both government and more recently private. I am therefore very interested in the quality of our blood! Also, when I am not in hospital needing the stuff I am a donar giving it. Nine major operations in the last 12 years and I am still HIV free, inspite of the horror stories.

To be cynical - HIV is spread by sex. Once when I was out with a large gang (60+ men) working on a rabies outbreak, I had a constant trickle of men With the clap. There were no women in camp and, as there were dissidents arround and we were the enemy, there was little dalying with the village girls by day. My senior NCO explained that though women were much to be prefered, in the absence of anything else...Beinh a young and very straight laced officer from a very old fashioned back ground I was flabagasted to say the least.

Later as a station commander I used to place a box of condoms on the corner of the desk in the ops room so that any men who wanted to could help themselves. Only the Sagent Major ever did. He had ten kids and didn't want any more. The two most common "crimes" I had to deal with were not poaching et al but drunk on duty and statutory rape.

If you cannot eat it, drink it, steal it you shag it- women, children (boys or girls) and if all else is in short supply, a goat or donkey. My records show that out of a regular staff of 63 (officers and Men) at Sengwa, my worst year the clinic dealt with 341 cases of STD. Five men (myself, the other officer, the Sargent Major and two general hands) never caught anything. So the others were more than once a month.

Ganyana:

quote:

At Sengwa, my worst year the clinic dealt with 341 cases of STD.

You really should have got those toilet seats cleaned up!

Regards,

Pete

quote:

Brody also points out that for scientists to concede they were wrong would be “to admit they’re complicit in mass death. That’s hard to admit that to yourself, much less to other people.â€

I find it hard to believe that any reputable scientist would make this kind of statement. This is pure BS and not worthy of publication in any scientific journal, but perhaps on the Internet.
Peter.

Ganyana,

While was in your beautiful counrty in 2000 I had a long discussion with a woman about the AIDS situation. She told me that the use of astringents to facilitate 'dry sex' was very common amongst the populace. She held that this practice caused abrasions and helps with the transmission of HIV in hetrosexual intercourse.

Is this just an urban myth or is there some truth in it? If true what would you guess the percentage of infections is caused in this way?

Thanks!

-Steve

Hi Steve

An adendum to my earlier post
AIDS is not spread by mosquitoes! At Sengwa in 1995 I quietly had the whole station tested (324 officers, men, wives, children) 6 men, nine wives and 47 kids were not HIV possitive. If biting flies and mozzies had been an agent of transmission we would all have caught it.

On "dry Sex"- that is cultural ammongst only one of the three tribes in the area (the Batonka). Prevailing belief is that sex with a virgin will cure AIDS hence the search for ever younger girls - and in a drought year like this with 50% of the population hungry a man with money ( like a civil servant)can easily get pre-teen girls. This will actually be Mugabe's legacy - starvation will kill very few but the average age at which I am seeing HIV possitive girls has fallen from 16/17 in 1995 to 11/12 now.

The other interesting belief which is growing in the cities is that condoms are infected with HIV - and that the issuing of them is a great white plot to wipe out the blacks.

When I think of some truley great men and personal friends of mine who have died from HIV related illness I sometimes almost want to cry at the current attitudes.

I've always "kept it in my pants" till I got home when the Mrs. wasn't with me ANYWHERE in Africa.
Isn't that the most effective way to stop HIV?
As far as medical emergencies it has not happened to me yet,though if it does I will go only to a private hospital or else take my chances without it. There are few worse ways to go out than AIDS in my book. I saw it happen to a brother,Gosh awfull way to go!

While entering Burkina Faso in 1998 and "displaying" my bow and arrows for customs, I cut my finger severely on a broadhead. Absolutely terrified that some "official" was going to make me go to a hell hole for stitches, I hurriedly grabbed the ball cap off of my head and wadded it up in my hand, somewhat stopping the bleeding... or at least hiding the wound from anyones sight.

Luckily, there was a bathroom at the little customs house (away from the airport.. I had been taken to several buildings because no one knew what to do with a bow)... I cut off part of my shirt and with duct tape which was in the bow case, made a makeshift bandage, albeit, the size of an orange.

I must have left a pint of blood on the walls, sink and floor of the bathroom. I've always wondered what those guys thought when they discovered the "scene of the crime".

An Assembly of God missionary with whom I ate lunch got out his medical gear to stich up the cut that morning, but after spraying blood all over his house, too, we finally opted for a hydrogen proxide wash, smearing Neosporin and maintaining pressure on the cut with gauze and a finger splint wrapped tight with... you guessed it... duct tape.

Thank God for duct tape and that it was my left hand!

Interestingly, the plan, if we lay folks hadn't been able to stop the bleeding, was to drive to the little town of Po, where there was a dentist who autoclaved his stuff... In other words, the missionary believed , in the captial city of Ouagadouguo (maybe 1,000,000 folks), that no one could be trusted enough to do something as simple as sutures without risking the patient with AIDS.

Africa is really a huge place.. One of our party got really ill in RSA this past summer. He went to a "private" hospital run by a mining company and felt that his treatment was on a par with anything he'd experienced in the States. I don't think he'd feel the same about the "hospitals" in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, etc.

If I understand correctly, the presence of the other 'garden variety' std's greatly increases the risk of heterosexual transmission of HIV. In some circles this is believed to be a major factor in the shift of AIDS as a homosexual disease to an 'equal opportunity' disease. Bob

I have been to a hospital in Dar es Salaam and I was impressed, it was clean and they were very in tune to AIDS and African problems..It was clean as a pin...My good friend Russ Smith had a nice stay in that hospital and he was also very impressed with the measures they went to to prevent whatever....Johan Calitz spent a good deal of time in a Kenya hospital and Nicki spent a good deal of time in a hospital in Africa..they have done well...

Just passing this on for what its worth, but a lot of white africans spend a lot of time in those hospitals and seem to evade the AIDs virus???????????

So what your saying Ray is be careful when the doctor asked you to bend over and you feel both hands on your shoulders?

Jeff

Here's a kit that should fit in your day bag without any undo fuss. It's cost is around $60.00 U.S. if you think about this kind of need, it's cheap for insurance.

Sutures and Needles kit

quote:

Originally posted by Ganyana:
The other interesting belief which is growing in the cities is that condoms are infected with HIV - and that the issuing of them is a great white plot to wipe out the blacks.

No offense meant but if that is true we should bring back colonialism. No that the virgin idea is not just as stupid..

quote:

Originally posted by Ropes:

quote:

Originally posted by Ganyana:
The other interesting belief which is growing in the cities is that condoms are infected with HIV - and that the issuing of them is a great white plot to wipe out the blacks.

No offense meant but if that is true we should bring back colonialism. No that the virgin idea is not just as stupid..

Ropes,

In most of Africa, everything bad that happens, be it disease, poverty, or that the rainy season is late, is veiwed as a great white plot to wipe out the blacks.

No matter what, the whiteman will always get the blame as long as the whiteman is dumb enough to keep handing out money to "help" Africa IMO. This is in many africans eyes, an admition of guilt. That we have done, and are doing something wrong and thus are paying our way out. This unfortunatly does nothing but create dependancy and lazyness. Why work when you can sit by the roadside and drink beer, well aware that you're going to get a handout?

Some educated Ethiopian men I had contact with when buying some insuranse for our car in Addis mentioned to me that the best thing for Ethiopia was that all the NGOs withdrew, and and all foreign aid ceased. This was in their opionion the only way that Ethiopia would be forced back up on its feet, and once again become a self sufficiant and independant nation. They understood that this would create a period of serious problems, with an escalation of starvation etc. but in the longrun it would be worth it. Let it be clear that the potential starvation in Ethiopia would not be because they lack food in the country (it produces a lot more than one would think from watching TV programs about the country), but because the distribution is somewhat intentionally lacking. Basically, if the government doesn't like a group of people, the easist way to get rid of them is to not distribute food to them!

All in all, having seen what I have in 21 african countrys (and some other 3rd world countrys), I can't help but agree with those Ethiopian gentlemen.

As for HIV/AIDS, I seriously doubt that there is any other continent in the world where people screw around as much as is done in Africa. As a black african man in many african societys (especially with a little bit of money), you are not looked upon as a "real man" unless you have a few mistresses on the side. They in turn usually have a couple of other lovers, and thus the spread of HIV/AIDS is quite fast. The husbands then go back to their wives infecting them, and when the husbands eventually die of an AIDS related sickness, the husbands brother takes over the wife/wives. If he and his other wife/wives didn't have it from before, chances are that they'll get it now from the "new" wife/wives. I'm not saying that this goes on everywhere, but it is common in many african countrys. Essensially it was a good way to take care of the family left behind when a provider died, but with todays AIDS problems it is a differant matter.

So in a way, one might say that the only way for africa to get back in shape is as you say to "re-colonize" the continent, and bring in some "law and order". However, that solution will just make the whiteman even more evil in their eyes (if this is even possible!). Thus the best solution IMO is to cut out the "help", and let them sort things out themselves. It'll be better in the longrun.

if not for the sport why would any white man want to go to Africa in the first place?
Let's face it we are viewed as the root to all problems, as evil doers that occasionally give a free handout.
Me, I'm questioning my choice to spend American dollars there now, for the first time in my life.
I think what burns me the most is while despising me behind that smile their hand is out to gouge me wherever and whenever possible.
The safaris I have my deposits on now may well be my last. I am leaning more towards South America in the future.
Oh don't get me wrong, Africa is beautiful, some people are grand, but generally we Americans are looked down on as rich spoiled money pits.

Adventurous1,

It is understandably easy to say that one should give up going to africa, due to all the problems that go on throughout the continent. However, I think that the end result would only be that one would miss out on so many other good things down there that weigh up for all the crap.

Besides the hunting, there are actually quite a lot of interesting places to go to, and interesting people to meet in various african countrys.

And although you will be leaving $$$ in a continent with lots of BS going on, I would think that the main reason for going is not to support this or that, but rather for your own sake. Which is a good enough reason IMO. When my wife and I drove from Norway to RSA for a year, lots of people asked us: "Oh, are you doing it in support for some charity or something?" . Our answer was very simple: No it wasn't to support anything/anyone at home, nor anything/anyone down in Africa. It was purely for our own sake, and our sense of adventure. Some people thought this was selfish of us. I say F#%k them! Since when is it illegal to enjoy oneself, want to explore a little?

So don't worry about spending your money in africa, thinking where that money will end up. Do it for yourself!

Edited for some typos...

Thanks for the really good information on HIV in Africa. I was briefed before I went to Africa to stay out of the local "clinics" and the PH and his neighbors had a good supply of anti-biotics. I spent a little over a decade working in the Emergency Services field (EMS) and while AIDS infection was a concern, we were even more concerned about Hepatitus "B". According to our medical staff, Hepatitus "B" could infect you up to 7 days if you came into contact directly (wound, cut, etc.) with the blood of an infected person. Hepatitus "B" can cause fatal problems, but you can be innoculated against it if you expect to be at risk (unfortunately not the case with AIDS). Mags

Erik as usual you are correct, I just allow myself to become fed up with "all the crap" at times. As you stated I do go for my own selfish reasons, I enjoy the scenery and the game.
But the dam shipping fees to get that game home is now at the point where I've decided the trophy is going home with me as a memory only.