Completely Bananas
Well it seems
Tina Rosenberg of the NY Times is not the only one touting outlandish cures for HIV and AIDS. It took till this past December for AIDS activists in Toronto to finally speak out against South African Health Minister, Manto Tshabala-Msimang, MD for pushing an all natural vegetable diet on AIDS patients in lieu of anti-retroviral drugs. It prompted 81 world renowned scientists and doctors to petition South Africa's president for her resignation. Here's a quote from
an article that appeared in December's issue of POZ magazine:
In the summer of 2000, with Tshabala-Msimang at his side, Mbeki (President of South Africa) proclaimed that poverty, not HIV, causes AIDS. However, in 2003 he announced a plan to quickly treat 380,000 HIV positive people with anti-retrovirals. Only 200,000 have received treatment thus far, and Tshabala-Msimang, continuing to tout her natural remedies, has repeatedly thwarted the rollout.
In a related story, according to
an article in the Daily Mail, the president of Gambia, Yahya Jemmeh, who won his office through a powerful military coup back in 1994, claims to have cured AIDS altogether. That's right--he's found a cure! Saints be praised and hallelujah! So thank you very much Liz Taylor and AmFAR, all you high priced pharmaceutical companies and all the folks toiling away at the
Aaron Diamond Institute, but your services are no longer required.
And that's not all boys and girls, the news only gets better because Mr. Jemmeh's cure is FREE! Here's a description of this new no-cost miracle cure:
A green paste is applied to a patient’s chest. A grey liquid is then splashed on, and finally the patient is given a bitter yellow brew to drink, followed by two bananas.
Patients are then advised to do the Hokey-Pokey and turn themselves about. That, after all, is what it's all about.
In response to this story, I'd like to quote the immortal words of Gwen Stefani, "This sh*t is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S!"
Labels: AIDS, Medicine
New AIDS vaccine? Not so much...
Yesterday I received an email from my friend Tom whom I've known for nearly 20 years. Tom and I met during my first week of college and became fast friends. Much like myself, Tom has never been one to shy away from expressing an opinion, and in fact our mutual passion on issues that are important to us has been one of the many bonds of our friendship over the years.
Tom's email was to inform me that a letter he wrote in
response to a NY Times article had been published (albeit edited) in yesterday's NY Times magazine.
The article in question was by a Tina Rosenberg who quite outrageously and irresponsibly (in my opinion and Tom's, too) equates circumcision with an AIDS vaccine. She cites studies done in Africa that show a fifty percent reduction in HIV rates among circumcised men compared to their uncircumcised counterparts. She claims that this fifty percent "success rate" is the best we can hope for in an AIDS vaccine even though it only protects the circumcised man and not his partner. She neglects to mention the millions of
circumcised men living with HIV, however.
By
Rosenberg's reasoning, condoms, which are widely known to prevent HIV 70 to 100 percent of the time, should have been touted as a "vaccine" years ago. There are so many problems with her claims it's hard to know where to begin but Tom brings up one of the many issues in his response below. You can also read responses from other readers by
clicking here. Tom writes:
The foreskin is a vital part of the male sexual mechanism, and it seems inappropriately easy for a woman to suggest that a man cut off part of his genitals when the opposite suggestion would be greeted with outrage. For centuries, circumcision has been said to cure everything from demonic possession to madness. This study is another in a long line of witch-doctoring. I foresee men failing to protect themselves (or their partners) during intercourse by reasoning, Don’t worry, I’m circumcised.
You can read Tom's unedited response on his blog,
The Daily Rocket. Rock on, Tom!
Labels: AIDS, Medicine
Sinusitis
The posts may be a little slow in coming for a few days. I've been completely knocked on my ass by acute sinusitis:
An inflammation of the sinuses (hollow spaces in the bone of the cheeks and forehead) due to infection. Common symptoms of sinusitis include pain in the face, colored (not white or clear) secretions from the nose, and headache.
After 5 miserable days I called my doctor who called in some antibiotics for me. No office visit was necessary. He trusts that I know the symptoms well enough by now because I've had it often enough. I even had surgery a few years ago to cut down on the infections, but occasionally one slips through. I had an ethmoidectomy. Anyway, here's a picture of it which I thought was pretty disturbing. Enjoy!
Labels: Medicine
