Comments on: HIV, AIDS, MMR, NPR and WTF?

By: Rachael

Rachael — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 22:19:49 +0000

Itâ??s been 30 years. We are long overdue for a solution for the AIDS epidemic! Please support re:solve AIDS and the Chronic Disease Fund. http://bit.ly/e4ehI7

By: Nelly

Nelly — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 22:15:14 +0000

Itâ??s been 30 years. We are long overdue for a solution! Please support re:solve AIDS and the Chronic Disease Fund. http://bit.ly/e4ehI7

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 02:25:31 +0000

There are 33,300,000 of HIV positive single people worldwide. If you are one of them and you are prepared to become a little brave then You may find that POZmingle. com is just for you. For you will come across new individuals who will certainly become life long friends or Love of life and achieve a degree of self-belief you never would have believed possible.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 02:22:21 +0000

By: Timberwoof

Timberwoof — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 07:14:29 +0000

I learned about AIDS in a paragraph-sized article in Scientific American that reported the change of the name from Gay-Related Immune Deficiency to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. I parsed those words: it’s infectious; it wipes out your ability to fight off infections; you get lots of diseases. I realized that it was going to kill a lot of people.

I was coming to terms with being gay at the time. I decided to play carefully â?¦ that worked for me. Several friends and acquaintances died.

By: Liz Borkowski

Liz Borkowski — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:20:39 +0000

I didn’t know that about NPR, either! I was a little young at the time to be critiquing media coverage. I will say, though, that my public schools did a good job giving us the facts about how HIV is transmitted and how to avoid becoming infected, once researchers had figured that out and communicated it. I’m sure my memory isn’t complete, but I think my teachers avoided condemning anyone for their sexual practices.

By: Maryn

Maryn — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:01:06 +0000

I didn’t know that about NPR. But to be fair, the self-censorship wasn’t *only* media. The CDC edited the proposed title of the original MMWR bulletin to take out the word “homosexual.”

(You can see that story here if you care to; on SUPERBUG last week, I ran a book excerpt that tells the story of the finding of the original cases and writing of the bulletin:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/06/aids-how-began-3/ )