- Joined
- Jun 25, 2008
- Messages
- 8,080
- Reaction score
- 3,918
- Location
- Canada
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Independent
It's not quite as egalitarian of a disease as you imply. Among heterosexuals who do not engage in homosexual encounters on the side (or have sex with those who do) and who do not share needles, HIV is incredibly rare. It's astoundingly difficult to get HIV from traditional heterosexual sex. The odds that a man having unprotected vaginal sex with an HIV+ female will get infected is 0.05%. That's nearly infinitesimal. For a female involved in unprotected vaginal sex with a man with HIV, the odds only increase to 0.1%. The two main non-childbirth/non-blood transfusion ways that HIV is transmitted are through:
1) Unprotected receptive anal intercourse (0.5%), and
2) IV Drug Needle sharing (0.67%)
For people who are circumcised, the rate is further cut in half. For those that use condoms, it drops another 85%.
Simply put, if you're a circumcised heterosexual who uses condoms and only has intercourse with women who don't have sex with bisexual men or use IV drugs, you really don't need to worry about HIV.
First, your claim that it's astoundingly difficult for heterosexual sex to result in HIV is rather audacious. If two people have unprotected sex and one is infected, the risk is high. After gay men, heterosexual black women have the highest HIV/AIDS rate. (I'm not trying to bring race into this, just offset your argument about "low risk" to heterosexuals.)
Second, it is well known among the health community that gays have a statistically higher infection rate because, unlike their heterosexual counterparts, they get tested more often, and more infected gays are aware of their status than infected heterosexuals. So, statistically, you are correct. This is where statistics do not tell the whole truth.
Everyone should worry about HIV and STDs in general. HIV is not the only uncurable STD either.
And finally... please post sources to the stats you posted so I can verify where you are getting your information. Thanks.