After decades of insisting that HIV in sub-Saharan African countries is almost always a result of 'unsafe' sex, and that infections can be averted by 'abstaining' from sex, being 'faithful' to one partner and using condoms, the massive HIV industry may now be admitting that these 'behavioral' approaches don't work, and never have:
"Dube believes that early access to ART (antiretroviral therapy) is the way forward after a decade of trying to change behaviour barely dented the transmission rate."
But the industry still insists that HIV is mostly transmitted via heterosexual (penile-vaginal) sex, in sub-Saharan African countries. Curiously outside of sub-Saharan Africa, the bulk of HIV transmissions are due to receptive anal sex and intravenous drug use.
The reasoning for this is not so complex: the vast majority of people engage in sexual intercourse at some time in their life. Just as the HIV industry really (really, REALLY) wanted behavioral programs to work, because few viable alternatives were acknowledged, now they really want antiretroviral drugs to work.
Instead of identifying people infected with HIV as early as possible, monitoring their health, and putting them on ARVs when they clearly need them, the HIV industry has come up with 'treatment as prevention', which means anyone testing positive for HIV will be put on ARVs, for the rest of their life.
Not content with getting as many HIV positive people on ARVs as possible, the industry has also come up with PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis). This means that people can go on ARVs before they are infected. The industry can then 'target' the people they say are in need of PrEP. After all, who wants to prevent infection with such a lucrative virus?
Hey presto! If almost everyone engages in sexual intercourse at some time, then almost everyone is at risk! The number of people infected with HIV globally is between 30 and 40 million (depending on whose figures you use), which might seem like a very large market for the bloodsucking HIV industry.
But in a few strategic moves, the market rockets to hundreds of millions, perhaps even a billion or so, as rubbish behavioral problems are dropped all over the developing world, to be replaced by the imposition of enormous drug programs. Sure, individuals don't have to pay, but someone does; who, by the way, is going to pay?
Sex workers are an easy target, always have been. Even deciding who is a sex worker is a matter of debate among the HIV 'experts' (but certainly not among sex workers themselves). But how about the biggest HIV positive demographic in South Africa, which has the largest HIV positive population in the world? Teenage girls, many of whom are just becoming sexually active. What about giving PrEP to all of them, says the HIV industry?
Never mind prevention they say, treatment IS prevention they say, as they bank their billions and brand yet more sectors of the population as 'at risk'. Meanwhile, young people are demanding things that they feel are important, such as sanitary pads and condoms (how much was spent on condoms over the last 20 years?)
Some people are even demanding cancer drugs. Why are some people not able to access these? Is it because cancer is old news? Not 'sexy' enough any more? Or is it because many of the patents on cancer drugs have long expired, and the number of people involved is only a fraction of the number of people who can have ARVs for life; cancer drug regimens are not life-long.
If HIV negative people are to be given ARVs to 'protect them from infection', what about people who are already HIV positive but still don't have access to treatment? There are an estimated 20 million HIV positive people thought to be unable to access treatment (again, depending on who is counting, according to which methodology).
Poor Charlize Theron, who says it's not an honor to host the Durban HIV conference because 'we should have eliminated HIV by now'. So they didn't tell her that this is the biggest opportunity in history that Big Pharma has had to put hundreds of millions of people on overpriced drugs that they will need for the rest of their lives?
"Dube believes that early access to ART (antiretroviral therapy) is the way forward after a decade of trying to change behaviour barely dented the transmission rate."
But the industry still insists that HIV is mostly transmitted via heterosexual (penile-vaginal) sex, in sub-Saharan African countries. Curiously outside of sub-Saharan Africa, the bulk of HIV transmissions are due to receptive anal sex and intravenous drug use.
The reasoning for this is not so complex: the vast majority of people engage in sexual intercourse at some time in their life. Just as the HIV industry really (really, REALLY) wanted behavioral programs to work, because few viable alternatives were acknowledged, now they really want antiretroviral drugs to work.
Instead of identifying people infected with HIV as early as possible, monitoring their health, and putting them on ARVs when they clearly need them, the HIV industry has come up with 'treatment as prevention', which means anyone testing positive for HIV will be put on ARVs, for the rest of their life.
Not content with getting as many HIV positive people on ARVs as possible, the industry has also come up with PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis). This means that people can go on ARVs before they are infected. The industry can then 'target' the people they say are in need of PrEP. After all, who wants to prevent infection with such a lucrative virus?
Hey presto! If almost everyone engages in sexual intercourse at some time, then almost everyone is at risk! The number of people infected with HIV globally is between 30 and 40 million (depending on whose figures you use), which might seem like a very large market for the bloodsucking HIV industry.
But in a few strategic moves, the market rockets to hundreds of millions, perhaps even a billion or so, as rubbish behavioral problems are dropped all over the developing world, to be replaced by the imposition of enormous drug programs. Sure, individuals don't have to pay, but someone does; who, by the way, is going to pay?
Sex workers are an easy target, always have been. Even deciding who is a sex worker is a matter of debate among the HIV 'experts' (but certainly not among sex workers themselves). But how about the biggest HIV positive demographic in South Africa, which has the largest HIV positive population in the world? Teenage girls, many of whom are just becoming sexually active. What about giving PrEP to all of them, says the HIV industry?
Never mind prevention they say, treatment IS prevention they say, as they bank their billions and brand yet more sectors of the population as 'at risk'. Meanwhile, young people are demanding things that they feel are important, such as sanitary pads and condoms (how much was spent on condoms over the last 20 years?)
Some people are even demanding cancer drugs. Why are some people not able to access these? Is it because cancer is old news? Not 'sexy' enough any more? Or is it because many of the patents on cancer drugs have long expired, and the number of people involved is only a fraction of the number of people who can have ARVs for life; cancer drug regimens are not life-long.
If HIV negative people are to be given ARVs to 'protect them from infection', what about people who are already HIV positive but still don't have access to treatment? There are an estimated 20 million HIV positive people thought to be unable to access treatment (again, depending on who is counting, according to which methodology).
Poor Charlize Theron, who says it's not an honor to host the Durban HIV conference because 'we should have eliminated HIV by now'. So they didn't tell her that this is the biggest opportunity in history that Big Pharma has had to put hundreds of millions of people on overpriced drugs that they will need for the rest of their lives?
