BBC News reported yesterday that a Scottish man has had years added to his sentence for deliberately trying to infect partners (i.e. by not wearing a condom). Of his total of 14 known encounters, 6 are HIV+. Given that Rowe was not enthusiastic about treatment and had a high ‘viral load’ it flies against orthodoxy that all of his victims didn’t test positive.
Because Rowe is gay and there is ‘a high rate of HIV’ within that community it’s not surprising that there would be quite a few positive tests. That they are to be attributed to Rowe is only speculation, and I suspect the longer his tally rises there will still be less HIV+s in general.
In other news, which will be unsurprising to AIDS dissenters, a researcher has found that the use of substances like methamphetamine have a detrimental effect on the immune systems of HIV+ people, even if they are on treatment. Of course, if one tested positive while on meth (likely), they will not become healthy – indeed, not even lose their serostatus – without the cessation of the substance.
It’s simply superfluous to say that one immunodeficiency enables another. It’s more logical to say that one is just a marker of immunodeficiency, not a cause.
“We found a differential expression of 32 genes and perturbation of 168 pathways in recent stimulant users, including genes previously associated with the HIV reservoir, immune activation, and inflammation,” said Carrico.
Following the ‘infected’ blood inquiries of the Republic of Ireland (Lindsay Tribunal) and Scotland (Penrose Inquiry), there is now a UK-wide inquiry (presumably predominantly covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland) to be led by Sir Brian Langstaff. It can be predicted, as per the Lindsay and Penrose results, that there will be close to zero non-haemophilic cases of HIV-positivity, and that this detail will be again ignored.
the then minister of state for health, Kenneth Clarke, told the House of Commons: “There is no conclusive evidence that Aids is transmitted by blood products.” … “only haemophiliacs have died” [source: The Guardian]
In short, why are there no notable numbers of HIV/AIDS from plain transfusions?
[thanks: Emanuel P]