Do you need to be tested for HIV?

[bugscufle]

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"U.S. efforts to test nearly everyone for the AIDS virus have stalled and just 40 percent of adults in the country have ever been tested for the fatal and incurable virus, according to a government report .

New methods are needed to get more people tested, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in issuing the report."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26074965/

[bookwormom]

no

[mom]

no
here, here - ditto on that one

[rAcErRicK]

Folks, just please keep in mind the discussion in the mesquito thread. One does not need to be a moral degenerate to contract this thing. I have read where, in ideal laboritory conditions, the virus has been kept alive on a brass doorknob, for 14 hours. So, how long can it live on the one we touched while using the rest room at wherever ? I certainly don't suggest panic, but knowledge. Regardless of where this disease came from, and there is much contriversy,
it is reducing the earth's population in very large quantities. Awareness to it has died down, but it continues to ravage the planet.

rick

[SkooliesRock]

I can't even get a girl to hold my hand........ ;)

[Cutter]

I went through the Agent Orange Registry medical testing last September. They took 9 vials of blood and tested for everything you can imagine. No HIV for me, but I've been in a monogamous relationship with the same girl since we were 16 so I wasn't really worried.

[Suzy]

I don't trust "government" programs trying to test for anything....because they have their own agendas....big agencies wanting more money for the number of "victims" they have, and on and on and on....

And yes, I have been tested by my own private doctor a few years ago after a messy divorce....and NO I don't have it

[bugscufle]

What should the government do when it knows that a person has AIDS?

Less than 30 years ago AIDS affected just a small segment of the population. Now the government says nearly all the population needs to be tested for it. Apart from the concern that when people are tested for one thing will they eventually be tested for everything, and while information may be used for beneficial purposes, is it not also possible that information will be used for harmful purposes; if it was another group of people, would they have not been quarantined so that the disease would not become so widespread in the population as it is today?

[ThisisDoc]

tin foil hats and black helicopters

[walls0stone]

I think such things just make us say..oh yea.. I remember that...Tom Hanks made a movie about it... and then some may think twice about risk. Like the worthless fruitcake at Christmass, you are reminded you have an Aunt Milly

[rockymtngirl]

Yes - was tested a long time ago when they couldn't figure out why I was having lots of pain issues - I think they tested me for everything under the sun, then told me there was nothing wrong with me. Thanks doc!

[Suzy]

as I said before, if the government gets involved in just about anything, it gets totally screwed up....so if you feel you need to be tested, go to a private doctor that you trust and have it done...they usually have to send the test off for testing but it can be done to protect your privacy!

[OzarkMtnDaredevil]

Aunt Milly? Privacy? Tom Hanks? What are you folks talking about? :P

[DavidOH]

No, and no one should be tested at my expence.

[Anne]

I've been tested and do so about every five years. I'm married, but better safe than sorry.

[danville]

Suzy,
A positive test result for HIV and AIDS, like many other communicable diseases, is not really private. The physician is required by federal law to report the positive result to the local health department, who in turn reports the information to the CDC. For certain diseases, HIV included, the carrier is then interviewed and others who they report may have been exposed are contacted for testing. A person who tests positive and fails to comply with the investigation faces possible imprisonment. So lets say the girl next door in small town America has a baby who tests HIV positive at birth. Mom refuses to name a father or potential fathers, also refusing to name sexual parteners. The court orders a mandatory HIV screen for her and she is positive but refuses to cooperate. She is threatened with prison then begins to sing the names of the three men she has ever had sex with. These people are informed by the health department they have possibly been exposed HIV and are encouraged to submit for testing. The rumor mill swirls in town and all three guys know each other and compare notes. Now everyone in town knows the neighbors daughter has HIV. Sounds bad. Most people link HIV positive status with bad behavior. That is so false. People who are heterosexual non drug useres think they are free and clear. People lie. Simple as that. All it takes is one exposure. You, your spouse, that person you met at the bar in college ten years ago. We all like to think we lead lilly white lives but in actuallity alot don't. That is why more people should be tested. If you are or have ever been sexually active then don't try to fool yourself. You could have been exposed. Early diagnosis and starting antiretroviral drugs can allow a person to have a reasonably normal life and life expectancy. I work in a nursing home in rural Virginia. We have had several HIV positive patients. All in the last two years are males over 50 who deny homosexual sex and IV drug use. Most were married. WOW!

[sethwyo]

I live and work in an area where there are a lot of people from 3rd world countries, where there is a bad problem of spreading dieseases such as aids hepititus ect. Aside from that, most of the 'local' men talk a great deal of sex acts and drug use that does indicate a great risk for infection.
I rember laughing myself silly the time my forman took a drink from a gatorade bottle that turned out to have human urine in it. an imigrant worker not wanting to go to the rest room urinated in the bottle and left it in the work area.
I thought it funny at the time. it isnt.
One day while taking a drink from a bottle of my own i realized that it had not been setting where i left it, and that mutch more liquid was missing from it than when i left it, Someone had drank from my bottle, I became sick thinking about what i might have ingested.
No sex or drugs for me, i do like some rock'n'roll.
A mentaly sick person who will do things on a job site such as putting their bodie waste in my tool bag however, is something i cant really help. I have been exposed to who knows what. One example amoung many. That tv show about things caught on tape, A person hides a camera and catches people working in resturants, roomates, employes, and family doing things to intentionly spread diease through blood or body waste. You never know what you have been exposed to. Its not paranoid. I have thought about testing, And will think about it some more.

[WileyCoyote]

According to some paramedics I know, the worst thing that ever happened to the HIV 'epidemic' was - Viagra. Suddenly guys who hadn't had sex -or been able to cheat on their wives - were trolling, picking up anything and anyone - and spreading it everywhere. Senior "extended living facilities' became hotbeds of key clubs and other wild sex groups, wife-swapping, etc. So all it took was for one person in the group to contract the disease - and everyone got it. *How scary is THAT? Grampa and Gramma are not only getting it on again - they are spreading HIV!! (I'm poking out my mind's eye to get rid of that mental image *:P )

It used to be, pre-Viagra, that the fastest growing group contracting the disease was African American females; now the fastest growing group is the 50+ crowd.

I have to say that I am more in dread of contracting tuberculosis from illegals. It can be spread through a cough, airborne droplets, that can end up on your 'clean' glass in the back of the restaurant, on your burger, anywhere. A good friend contracted it and didn't know why - he was a truck driver. First thing out of his doctor's mouth was *- "Do illegals unload your truck for you?" *The whole time he was contagious (6 months) and undergoing treatment he could not work. And there is no cure for TB, either - it merely is contained by drugs. Stop taking the drugs, and you are contagious again, as well as having your lungs eaten up by it. The biggest problem the docs say is that the illegals go into the ER for treaatment, get the drugs, then when they feel better, stop taking them... this not only makes them contagious again, but makes what they are carrying highly drug-resistant.

Yes in perfect conditions HIV can be kept alive outside of the body, but few of us live and work in "perfect conditions". So the only way to get HIV is by body fluid to body fluid contact. I have known nurses and doctors to have open cuts that were contacted by blood or body fluids from an HIV patient, even inadvertent needle sticks from an HIV pos patient; after many tests ongoing for a year, they did not contract the disease.

Since we have been married for 26 years and don't cheat on each other, and since we worked the ambulance together for many years and got tested frequently with no positives, we are quite content that we are not endangering each other. *And we sure don't plan on joining a senior living facility at any point in our futures! *:o *;D

[walls0stone]

so if an 80 year old man, get's an illness due to the fact that he got it on with an 80y/o woman... but the HIV takes some time go get going..and they are close to the avrage age of death any how.. who cares?

I guess the only ones who could become infected are the 25 y/o tarts who hop in the sack with the 80 y/o to get his money....hhhmm

Isn't it more less likly that you will become infected if you live by God's laws any how..???

[Terri]

I guess the only ones who could become infected are the 25 y/o tarts who hop in the sack with the 80 y/o to get his money....hhhmm

Isn't it more less likly that you will become infected if you live by God's laws any how..???
Nope. Not a bit of it!

You ALSO need to be married to somebody who lives by God's law, instead of just SAYING that he is!!!!!!!!! Also, somebody who does not share needles.

Fortunately, my sister did not get AIDS. She could have, though, very easily.

[WileyCoyote]

But that's the problem, Walls0stone - it isn't just 80 YOAs, it's the "55 and better" crowd, which gives them about another 30 years of not only endangering themselves, but everyone whom they are having sex with... then of course there are the older guys that had no compunction about cheating when they were younger, and who have a comfortable income, who think that lil miss is batting her eyes because he has a big... hand, rather than because he drives a sports car. Once they get their Viagra, they think that, once again, they are studly and attractive, and can show lil miss a good time....

You are right tho, if you live a proper law - whether it be God's law or a simple law of self-respect - you won't have the need to prove yourself at ANY age. If you have are still having sex with the same person since before HIV was even in the US, you probably have little to worry about. But if you are dating again at ANY age, you might want to be checked - and have your partner checked, too!! One never knows... 8)

[MNMOM]

No, I don't need to be tested. I remember about 20 year's ago I had to have surgery and they said I would be needing transfusions, I was quite concerned about that, because at that time there had been some HIV tainted blood that some people had gotten. If I would have had time I would have donated some of my own blood to be used for the surgery. But, usually what happens is the surgery isn't something that you hadn't been planned.

So, there are sometimes that innocent people do get infected with this terrible disease.

[Terri]

You can live a perfectly blameless life, and still get AIDS if your spouse cheats on you.

[Catalpa]

I got tested once, years ago, when I happened to be right there when a man had an arterial bleed. When I saw it spurting, I just instinctively clamped down on it with my bare hands and held until the medics took over. I didn't have any open wounds on my hands, but it was nice to be sure I was ok anyways.

It is true that if you are tested and the results are positive, your days of privacy are numbered. It's written down and documented somewhere, and you just never know when ir where it will pop up again.

I do not partake of any high risk behaviors, so I know I'm still clean - and thankfully I've not needed any transfusions when I had surgery.