Black U.S. AIDS rates rival some African nations

[civman21]

sounds good to me, it's better thn getting our hands bloody. let them whipe themselves out. Crack doesnt cut it, lets let them have aids. who cares. More liquor and gunshops while were at it. give em what they want.

 

[MobBoss]

NYC hands out about 2 million free condoms a year so the obvious problem is that we are not handing out enough free condoms to people....

 

[mangxema]

According to a recent study, Africans (including blacks) have a genetic predisposition to HIV infection, IIRC, as a result of an ancient suppression towards a particular form of malaria that had stricken the entire continent; HIV takes advantage of this mutation.

That is interesting... I did not know that, but it makes sense.

 

[civman21]

they have predisposition to aids, give me a break. it's an STD. you get it from skrewing what does a predisposition to maleria have to do with it. they have apedisposition to skrewing anything that moves and their woman have a predisposition to taking it black or white, aids or not.

Moderator Action: Trolling - warned. Here & above.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[GinandTonic]

Sickle cell gene looks a worse trade off by the day. Sure, it was good before Schweps put Tonic in your mini-bar and your prodigny moved to Tottenham, but sucks now huh.

 

[lovett]

they have predisposition to aids, give me a break. it's an STD. you get it from skrewing what does a predisposition to maleria have to do with it. they have apedisposition to skrewing anything that moves and their woman have a predisposition to taking it black or white, aids or not.

Look, Look Look!

It's me saying stuff with emphasis added and everything!
Wow!

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v

Regardless, the evidence does suggest that Europeans (and therefore Americans) have much higher prevalence of resistance to HIV. Immunity to HIV can be bestowed by a mutant variant of the CCR5 gene. This particular variant show varying prevalence in around the world. In Scandanavia it's about 15%, In France, Germany and England it's slighly less. About 10%. In the Middle East and around the Mediterannean it's 5%, more or less. It is completely absent in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Of course, that doesn't mean you get 10% less AIDS patients in France. Potentially, the effect are much more powerful then that. Im sure you've heard of herd mediated immunity. It basically points out that more difficult to maintain a chain of infection when large numbers of a population are immune. With 80%+ immunity a disease will simply not take hold in a community. Obviously 15% does not equal 80%. However it's high enough to make it very hard for a pandemic to take hold.

As for why Europeans have higher immunity rates then Africans, well that's quite interesting. We're (as in scientists) able to track down exactly when this mutant variant of CCR5 was under a strong selection pressure advantage. That was 500-700 years ago, approximately. Intriguingly, that's about the same time Bubonic plague was ravaging Europe. Most accounts suggest bubonic plague started in 1347 in Italy, before burning out in the 1670's. It killed about 25 million, or two third of Europes population. That's what one calls selection pressures. Interestingly, there's also some similiarites between the two viruses. Yersinia pestis (bubonic plague) and HIV attack exactly the same tissue. They both hijack white blood cells sent to attack them, and travel through the body via the lymph node system. It's thought that variant CCR5 makes invasion of white blood cell far more difficult.

 

[civman21]

whatever, you stick your thing in an aids infested chick, you get aids whats immunity have to do with it.

 

[lovett]

Ah. Somebody who doesn't understand biology. I bow to you Sir, and yield the point!

 

[nonconformist]

whatever, you stick your thing in an aids infested chick, you get aids whats immunity have to do with it.

Doesn't work like that, bub. Female to male transferal rate is close to nil.

 

[GinandTonic]

Doesn't work like that, bub. Female to male transferal rate is close to nil.

Yet the "close to" there is rather important. Kind of like a little bit pregnant, a little goes a long way.

 

[luiz]

You learn something every day.

I had no idea there were significant differences in resistance to AIDS among different human ethnicities. Never saw it mentioned here.

 

[warpus]

You're all rasist.

 

[Elrohir]

You learn something every day.

I had no idea there were significant differences in resistance to AIDS among different human ethnicities. Never saw it mentioned here.

That's 'cause it's rasist. It's pretty well known that reality is run by rich white people who hate the poor chocolate people of the world.

 

[ohcrapitsnico]

If Reagan didn't address the issue sooner...at least 25,000 died in America before he spoke....damn that Reagan.

 

[ohcrapitsnico]

NYC hands out about 2 million free condoms a year so the obvious problem is that we are not handing out enough free condoms to people....

Yeah sure the only people who have sex are New Yorkers. The whole illegal prostitution and abstinence/anti-birth control crusade certainly isn't helping.

 

[emzie]

Doesn't work like that, bub. Female to male transferal rate is close to nil.

Yeah, close to. One in 2000 roughly.

Still blows to be that one though. Blows equally hard to know someone who was that one.

Anyway, HIV isn't easy to get. Even anal sex, being the... er... catcher... is one in 200 or .5%

There's a lot of factors, one of which is luck. If anyone's curious: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV#Transmission

 

[JohnRM]

From CNN



Thoughts? I personally did not realize it was that bad...

I just have to wonder why so many blacks are getting AIDS, moreso than other ethnicities. Is there some kind of genetic predisposition that I am not aware of?


EDIT

According to a recent study, Africans (including blacks) have a genetic predisposition to HIV infection, IIRC, as a result of an ancient suppression towards a particular form of malaria that had stricken the entire continent; HIV takes advantage of this mutation.

Unfortunately I don't have the link.

That answers that question.

 

[holy king]

I just have to wonder why so many blacks are getting AIDS, moreso than other ethnicities. Is there some kind of genetic predisposition that I am not aware of?

from page 2

edit: ninja edit.

Regardless, the evidence does suggest that Europeans (and therefore Americans) have much higher prevalence of resistance to HIV. Immunity to HIV can be bestowed by a mutant variant of the CCR5 gene. This particular variant show varying prevalence in around the world. In Scandanavia it's about 15%, In France, Germany and England it's slighly less. About 10%. In the Middle East and around the Mediterannean it's 5%, more or less. It is completely absent in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Of course, that doesn't mean you get 10% less AIDS patients in France. Potentially, the effect are much more powerful then that. Im sure you've heard of herd mediated immunity. It basically points out that more difficult to maintain a chain of infection when large numbers of a population are immune. With 80%+ immunity a disease will simply not take hold in a community. Obviously 15% does not equal 80%. However it's high enough to make it very hard for a pandemic to take hold.

As for why Europeans have higher immunity rates then Africans, well that's quite interesting. We're (as in scientists) able to track down exactly when this mutant variant of CCR5 was under a strong selection pressure advantage. That was 500-700 years ago, approximately. Intriguingly, that's about the same time Bubonic plague was ravaging Europe. Most accounts suggest bubonic plague started in 1347 in Italy, before burning out in the 1670's. It killed about 25 million, or two third of Europes population. That's what one calls selection pressures. Interestingly, there's also some similiarites between the two viruses. Yersinia pestis (bubonic plague) and HIV attack exactly the same tissue. They both hijack white blood cells sent to attack them, and travel through the body via the lymph node system. It's thought that variant CCR5 makes invasion of white blood cell far more difficult.

 

[holy king]

yeah, two million condoms a year for a population of 8.7 million does in fact mean not handing out enough condoms...

 

[emzie]

I haven't heard that one. Perhaps your thinking about sickle cell anemia? That's a genetic disease which is prevalent among africans (or those with african descent) because sickle cell trait has an enormous affect in ones resistance to malaria.

Regardless, the evidence does suggest that Europeans (and therefore Americans) have much higher prevalence of resistance to HIV. Immunity to HIV can be bestowed by a mutant variant of the CCR5 gene. This particular variant show varying prevalence in around the world. In Scandanavia it's about 15%, In France, Germany and England it's slighly less. About 10%. In the Middle East and around the Mediterannean it's 5%, more or less. It is completely absent in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Of course, that doesn't mean you get 10% less AIDS patients in France. Potentially, the effect are much more powerful then that. Im sure you've heard of herd mediated immunity. It basically points out that more difficult to maintain a chain of infection when large numbers of a population are immune. With 80%+ immunity a disease will simply not take hold in a community. Obviously 15% does not equal 80%. However it's high enough to make it very hard for a pandemic to take hold.

As for why Europeans have higher immunity rates then Africans, well that's quite interesting. We're (as in scientists) able to track down exactly when this mutant variant of CCR5 was under a strong selection pressure advantage. That was 500-700 years ago, approximately. Intriguingly, that's about the same time Bubonic plague was ravaging Europe. Most accounts suggest bubonic plague started in 1347 in Italy, before burning out in the 1670's. It killed about 25 million, or two third of Europes population. That's what one calls selection pressures. Interestingly, there's also some similiarites between the two viruses. Yersinia pestis (bubonic plague) and HIV attack exactly the same tissue. They both hijack white blood cells sent to attack them, and travel through the body via the lymph node system. It's thought that variant CCR5 makes invasion of white blood cell far more difficult.

While D32 does do what you just said, and is prevalent where you described, it's much older than the Plague. It's been found at similar prevalence in (IIRC) 3000-year-old samples. Age might be off, but the study I read put the presence of the mutation well before the Plague.