In Vancouver we had a Big Cover story in the Vancouver Sun this week end. People are living for decades now, so it's not the death sentence that it once was. Magic had Kids since he was diagnosed.
My sister had donated blood to the Red Cross a few weeks ago because she just felt she had to since her friend got killed by a falling cemet barrier from a parking garage. Poor girl got flattened. Not saying this in a funny manner either.
Wells anyways, my sister got a letter from Red Cross saying she was HIV positive. Freaked my mom out and sent a scare throughout the family. The letter however indicated other factors about her blood that was inconclusive in comparison with others with HIV.
Went to the doctor, doctor just shook his head at the letter, took her blood and retested it. Results took a week and today we just all found out she's does not have HIV.
Yeah, it did come out saying that. My mother was the first one to open the letter and read it. Said something like..."We regret to inform you...."
My mother about fainted.
I guess Red Cross has F'd up alot of lives with these kinds of letters. One of my sister's other friends went on some website where it went into stories about people getting these kinds of letters from the Red Cross and totally screwed up their lives. One guy had his wife leave him since she believed he was messin' around.
Crazy stuff. This is the kind of stuff they ought to have on those news shows like Dateline or 20/20.
The test that Red Cross uses is not very efficient. Many factors can offset a positive reading, via cold, flu, mono, have any alcohol night before, a whole bunch of shit.
Gays, because of higher incidence of anal intercourse and # of partners.
Blacks account for roughly 50% of HIV infections and over 40% of AIDS cases. The lastest data suggests that 1 out of 50 blacks are currently infected, whereas 1 in 2,000 whites are infected. (blacks makes up 13% of the population). Through the various studies, black race is the #1 risk factor associated with STD infection, including the drip, HIV, and herpes. The reasons for this are not known and are sociologically debatable (condom use being at the top of the list, the stats don't lie. My ex didn't believe me and thought I was just being racist (she had a thing for black men she met at welfare office....incidently, the guy she cheated on me with, who has at least one rape conviction, got SHOT recently....I couldn't stop laughing about it.)