Heterosexual men spread HIV/AIDS to women.

AIDS is mentioned in a lot on ATS threads regarding homosexuality. But, globally, over 90% of HIV is spread from heterosexual men to women and children.
Why do many men not want to use a condom?
This is the most common complaint of females.
The Pope even said this week that using a condom for an HIV-poz male is acceptable as a "lesser evil".
Why are supposedly straight men so judgmental of gays, when they cannot stay faithful?
Why are women so complacent in all this?

In order to deal with HIV, it appears we have to overthrow the entire patriarchal system.

Rural South Africa:
Dodgy "virginity testing" for girls and women, but not for men?
But isn't that a globally accepted trope?
Young men must have sex.
Young women must abstain.
But then, who do the young men have sex with?
Male and female sexuality is constructed as differently, from the Bible to post-colonialism.
The women are always to blame for what the men do.
Is that right?

reply to post by halfoldman


Ummmm did you ever think that maybe a lot of the people in Africa are actually born with HIV due to the parents being infected

Dude its 2010, please tell me you just didnt realise this

reply to post by halfoldman


Thank you for this thread. S&F. Many do not realize that women and children suffer the hardest. I certainly got your point...women overall take the brunt of societies sins.

The women of Darfur are shunned if rapped..but they are raped because they fear the men of their family will be killed by the janjaweed while searching for water and wood. They sacrifice themselves for men then men turn their backs on them.

Islamic women are subjugated, have few if any rights, must cover themselves so not to tempt a mans weakness, and often times end up being stoned in public. Christian men also hold women at a lower spiritual level than themselves. And Women in the west get it from all directions....much more subtle in the west, like putting a higher price tag on womens goods and services, or the ongoing battle waged by Christians to take away freedom of choice.

Recent history tells us that the cries of HIV infected women and their children of any nation will go unheard....we are just not that important.

reply to post by OzWeatherman

Not quite sure of your point.
That's really the crux!
Men sleep around and give it to their women.
Hence (without treatment), they also give it to the children.

reply to post by Witness2008

Well HIV really turns up the temperature on women's rights vs. male behavior
In many places women can not control condom negotiation, or even arranged marriages.
Even worse, women are biologically more at risk.
The surface area of the vagina makes it more liable to tearing and damage.
Yet, male culture is nowhere honest about this, or protecting women.
It's a shame on heterosexuality.

reply to post by OzWeatherman


I'm pretty sure, without resorting to google, that babies 90% of the time are protected from infection by the womb, so they are born HIV free, I could be wrong, but more likley about the percentage.

Originally posted by woogleuk
reply to post by OzWeatherman

 

I'm pretty sure, without resorting to google, that babies 90% of the time are protected from infection by the womb, so they are born HIV free, I could be wrong, but more likley about the percentage.

No thats incorrect

An HIV positive woman can transmit the virus to her baby during pregnancy, labour and delivery, and through breastfeeding. If she takes no preventive drugs and breastfeeds then the chance of her baby becoming infected is around 20-45%

Due to the lack of proper health care in African countries, many children are infected, and the preventative drugs and procedures are not available

www.avert.org...

And the figures

Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) is when an HIV-infected woman passes the virus to her baby. This can occur during pregnancy, labour and delivery, or breastfeeding. Without treatment, around 15-30% of babies born to HIV positive women will become infected with HIV during pregnancy and delivery. A further 5-20% will become infected through breastfeeding

www.avert.org...

Perhaps next time you should resort to google before posting

reply to post by woogleuk

Good point to research!
However, even if that were true (which I doubt), it still says nothing on HIV being spread to the mothers.
So that's a rather strange point.

reply to post by halfoldman


I was just responding to Ozweathermans comment, which he said is incorrrect whilst quoting:

If she takes no preventive drugs and breastfeeds then the chance of her baby becoming infected is around 20-45%

Which, no disrespect meant Oz, i was correct, just not about the percentage, which, given your quote is 55-80% are born without HIV even if the mother takens no treatment.

Sorry to go off topic halfoldman, you have raised an interesting topic though.

edit

I'll make an on topic post:

HIV is a nasty one, it is not man made as a lot of people see to claim, most likely derived from SIV in monkeys.

If someone has it, then they are commiting a crime against humanity by sleeping with others unprotected if they know they have it.

Gay men are more likely to contract it as there is a lot of blood vessels "up there" (think of how a suppository works), however, if a woman is grazed/cut during intercourse she is more likely to contract it.

The good news is, there was something on the news lately about an almost vaccine which can help prevent a person from contracting it in the first place.

As a fan of Freddie Mercury, and having an older half brother who is gay (and worrying about him getting it if he isn't careful), I am not in any corner as to who may get it and why....it's out there, ANYONE can fall victim to it, and I just hope it isn't too long before it is eradicated.

reply to post by woogleuk


You can give HIV to a woman regardless of wether she is cut or not. Its not about blood, its about the transmission of bodily fluids.

Infection with HIV occurs by the transfer of blood, semen, vaginal fluid, pre-ejaculate, or breast milk.

Rather than debating the medical statistics of MTCI maybe debate the more important issue that I gleaned from the OP ....the social bias waged against women everywhere. Here is a link that shows that the West exhibits a similar attitude toward women and HIV...www.kff.org... Page two sums up the inequality nicely.

reply to post by OzWeatherman

Thanks for some truth!
Indeed, HIV can be absorbed through some tissue.

However, I'd rather explore some of the gender relations, and why married straight men have many sexual partners, whereas women have few or none.

Is this also more prevalent in Western culture?

reply to post by OzWeatherman


It still needs to get into the blood stream, it is transmitted through bodily fluids, but it HAS TO get into the other persons blood stream to infect them, usually via a cut.

I possibly missed the point of the thread here, but if there is a social bias between sex, then I think very little of the people that put forward this way of thinking. It is good that HIV and AIDS are not now restricted to homsexuals, but simply attaching that label and testing women, it should go both ways.

reply to post by halfoldman


halfoldman, in western society, or at least from my viewpoint, women and men are as bad as each other when it comes to multiple partners, or at least in modern times.

I have never cheated on any of the girlfriends I have had, yet a couple have cheated on me (and found out about).

20 years ago, maybe even ten, it was the majority of man doing the dirty deed, now I would say it's an easy 50/50, with women getting worse.

It's a good job HIV wasn't mainstream during the hippy free love era of the 60's/70's

Originally posted by woogleuk
reply to post by OzWeatherman

 

It still needs to get into the blood stream, it is transmitted through bodily fluids, but it HAS TO get into the other persons blood stream to infect them, usually via a cut.

No, thats incorrect. I think you need a lesson on how the virus works.

Any fluid will do, the virus is found as either a free particulate or attached to the cells that make up the fluid. Once the virus is in you, the virus undergoes an evolution and changes its RNA to DNA, in order to bind with the cells in the body. In most chronic cases, the virus replicates and infects other cells, leading to a full blown infection.

Please do your self a favour and google how it works

reply to post by OzWeatherman


HIV was never restricted to homosexuals, it was just deemed that way because gay men were more likely to contract it, if it was indeed passed from simian to human, then i would say heterosexuals made the first transmissions, did you know that when it was first discovered it was called GRID? (Gay related immunodeficiency disease)