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--- "Frederick Noronha (FN)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >And permit me to add some more 'misconceptions' about >AIDS promoted by a scientific world which has the >arrogance to believe it has all the answers. Or >almost! > It is very unfortunate that Frederick has decided to add further to the misconceptions regarding AIDS by making baseless charges against the scientific and medical community in the above post. I would have had no problems if he had posted genuine misrepresentations propagated by health authorities. In fact, I would have welcomed such a post. I can only assume that he has misconstrued my post as an assault on the East by an apologist for the Western establishment, which has led him to mount an exaggerated counteroffensive. In any case, now that he has leveled some serious unwarranted charges, I challenge him to substantiate them. Frederick, Please show us evidence that the scientific world (any legitimate medical or scientific organization) has propagated the false statements that you have posted in this forum. I submit to you that almost all of your charges are completely baseless. Most of the rest are gross exaggerations or distortions. I give below a point-by-point refutation of your charges. > >FALSE STATEMENT 1: We understand everything about >AIDS. > No scientific or medical entity has ever made the above claim. I challenge Frederick to show us evidence to support the above assertion. > >We know its origins and how it first came about. > This statement is an exaggeration. We do know the origin of AIDS in the sense that it is most definitely caused by the HIV virus, which is known to be a newly emerged retroviral species. We also know that the first cases of AIDS were recognized in the US in 1981, and symptoms resembling those of full-blown AIDS were noted retrospectively in some individuals in the US, Sweden, Tanzania and Haiti as early as 1978. HIV has been isolated from the blood sample of a man belonging to the Bantu tribe in Belgian Congo, who died in 1959. Genetic tests of his virus have revealed that it could not have originated more than a few years before 1959. However, we do not know exactly how the virus originated, and how it mutated and jumped from lower primates such as chimpanzees into humans. > >FALSE STATEMENT 2: AIDS is incurable. > This is a true statement. There is as yet no cure for AIDS. > >It's a deadly killer disease (as it was 20 years back >and continues to be till date, ARVs >notwithstanding.) > AIDS is still a killer disease. With ARV treatment mortality can be reduced and life can be prolonged. Please see the following article hosted by the U. S. National Institutes of Health: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/hivinf.htm > > FALSE STATEMENT 3: We understand precisely the >relationship between the HIV virus and AIDS. > This is an unnecessary exaggeration. What is known for sure is that HIV causes AIDS. We also know a great deal of how this happens, but we certainly do not know everything, and no responsible scientific entity would ever claim that. Here is a website hosted by the U.S. National Institutes of Health providing reliable information regarding this issue. http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/howhiv.htm > >FALSE STATEMENT 4: Every HIV/AIDS patient in the >world has heard of anti-retrovirals and every one can >afford them (approx Rs 1200-1500 per month in Goa). > > >FALSE STATEMENT 5: Allopathy has a cure for AIDS, as against just working to prolong one's life with ARVs. > > >FALSE STATEMENT 6: Homosexuals are as likely to get >AIDS as non-homosexuals or celebate persons, children and those in the 80+ age-group. > >FALSE STATEMENT 7: The condom will keep you >absolutely safe from HIV/AIDS. Just go ahead and live >life. It's business as usual. > >FALSE STATEMENT 8: HIV/AIDS is not transmitted through sexual contact. > >FALSE STATEMENT 12: Modern science understands >everything about HIV/AIDS. > > FALSE STATEMENT 13: The rate of the spread of AIDS >has nothing whatsoever to do with changing sexual >behaviour of the last generation or two. > >FALSE STATEMENT 15: A man in a white coat found a >cure for AIDS in Washington, while another did so >almost simultaneously in Munich. > Statements 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13 and 15 above are pure fabrications. No responsible scientific, medical or health organization or professional would ever make, and I submit has ever, made such silly statements. I challenge Frederick to show us even a single instance of this. > >FALSE STATEMENT 9: HIV came out of the heart of >Africa. > The available evidence indicates that the above assertion is true. I have already alluded to this earlier. Here is a responsible source at the University of California at San Francisco that discusses this issue: http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/InSite?page=pr-02-10&doc=2098.3cce > >FALSE STATEMENT 10: You're being racist if you blame >foreigners for being among the first HIV/AIDS >patients in Goa. > No responsible scientific, medical or health organization or professional would ever make such an assertion. If some such entity in Goa has done this, I ask Frederick to tell us who it is. > >FALSE STATEMENT 11: Tests for HIV infection are >completely reliable. There is no window period in >which a result could be a false negative. > The above statement is an exaggeration. The combined antibody tests have an accuracy of more than 99%. All medical professionals are mandated to inform the patients about false negatives and false positives. Here is a reliable source that addresses this: http://www.sfaf.org/aids101/hiv_testing.html > >FALSE STATEMENT 14: HIV/AIDS estimates globally are >perfectly reliable, and in all cases the >international figures tally exactly with the problem >as defined by local governments. World Bank's >huge 'soft loans' dumped in the so-called 'developing >world' is being efficiently and thoroughly utilised >to fight the actual AIDS problem. > The world scientific community is not responsible for the above claims. I challenge Frederick to show us how it is. > >There's a lot of false propaganda and myths about >AIDS. But should we go the other extreme to believe >that we have all the answers, that currently-held >positions are most accurate and infallable, and that >the currently Western-defined orthodoxies on the >tragic illness are valid for all people, in all >countries and for all points of time? > Frederick once again casts this as an East versus West problem. I maintain that the East-West dichotomy is a spurious one as far as modern science is concerned. Science is universal. There are great scientists in India, China, Japan and other Asian countries. There are great scientists in Africa, and good science is being done in all these places. There is a worldwide consensus in science, which is based on evidence and reason. It is not based on politics or religion or ideology, although these factors have been infused into it from time to time by ideologically driven governments. In all such cases scientists have collectively always acted in the public interest. > >Why does Santosh become such a fundamentalist when he >invests blind faith in the miracle-religion >propagandised today under the name of Science? > Frederick, is this really a serious question, even as a rhetorical one? Do you really believe in these assumptions regarding me? If you do, please point out one single assertion I have made in my previous post that reinforces these assumptions, that the facts that I have presented rest on miraculous, religious, fundamentalist explanations or on blind faith. I don't really care much about what you think my motivation in sending in the last post was. However, to those who have no reason to doubt me I want to say that it was certainly not haughtiness. And it was most definitely not scientific or western chauvinism. My motivation was actually two-fold. One, I have a tiny bit of a social or public conscience, albeit much smaller than most people, including Frederick, and two, I was alerted by a barrage of spam emails from a few misguided AIDS activists spreading some of the misinformation that I mentioned in my post. Cheers, Santosh
