From: Dale Thorn <dthorn@gte.net>
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 1997 22:56:13 -0800 (PST)
To: Igor Chudov <ichudov@algebra.com>
Subject: Re: overview.htm (fwd)
Message-ID: <199701260656.WAA10208@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Igor Chudov @ home wrote:
> Igor Chudov @ home wrote:
> > Dale Thorn wrote:

> > > My point about the antibiotics is that the male gays take a dis-
> > > proportionate amount of them, which compounds their problems.  It
> > > suggests to me that the immune system is already seriously debilitated
> > > or damaged before AIDS can take hold, rather than the notion that a
> > > healthy person can get it from the virii alone.

> Dale's hypothesis seems at odds with the linkage of aids and blood
> transfusion and transmission through needles.
> Nurses who contract aids through contaminated needles do not,
> normally, have devastated immune systems.

Let's be realistic about how AIDS is acquired.  A small analogy:

In my pockets I carry two wallets, one with $100's and the other with
smaller change, about 50 bills in various small denominations.  Let's
say tomorrow I spend a $10 bill at the bookstore, and the guy behind
the counter says "this is a phony bill".  So where did I get it?
Well, if pocket change were always LIFO (last in, first out), I might
be able to remember, but there's a good chance I wouldn't, since I go
to a lot of places and do a lot of small transactions.

Now I'm only talking 50 or so small bills, acquired and redistributed
over a period of at most a few months.  AIDS, OTOH, is likely to be
a development from years of  1) Contact with germs, chemicals, food
additives, antibiotics other medical treatments, sexual contact, etc.
and 2) Immune-suppressing activities such as lack of sleep and exercise,
anxiety and stress, and so on.

It seems to me that "proof" of someone acquiring AIDS from one stab
with a contaminated needle is a very nebulous thing. As far as nurses
go, the contact I've had with many of them tells me they are also
(on average) drug users extraordinaire.  Again, you'll be able to
find a very clean hospital in a big city with a bunch of nice clean
nurses in it (a lot of sweet old ladies is the image coming to mind),
but this is as unrealistic as Leave It To Beaver and other 1950's
nonsense.