Don’t Worry. Be Panicked.

The story about giving Statins to children as young as 8 is already ubiquitous, but a few versions of the story are adding that pediatricians are recommending that children with high cholesterol not be told of their predicament, because they’re worried that all the stress caused by the news would distract them from their school work.

As if their “school work” doesn’t peddle panic and paranoia about the environment and global warming.  It seems as if telling them about cholesterol would relax them by comparison.

Qualified Opinionator

UK Independent:

Threat of world Aids pandemic among heterosexuals is over, report admits

A quarter of a century after the outbreak of Aids, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has accepted that the threat of a global heterosexual pandemic has disappeared.

In the first official admission that the universal prevention strategy promoted by the major Aids organisations may have been misdirected, Kevin de Cock, the head of the WHO’s department of HIV/Aids said there will be no generalised epidemic of Aids in the heterosexual population outside Africa.

Related to this story, a world-renowned cardiologist said that the AIDS virus doesn’t affect one’s heart as badly as once thought.  His name was Dr. Hart.

“Remove This Thing”

AP:

Male circumcision gains as Kenya anti-AIDS weapon

KISUMU, Kenya - Sitting underneath the bright murals at a clinic, 22-year-old Elijah Ochanda gestures at his shorts and explains: “When they remove this thing, it makes you safer.”

(snip)

Bailey’s study in Kisumu, western Kenya found infection rates were cut by 60 percent among men who were circumcised. The study, funded by the U.S. Institutes of Health and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, was one of several that led the World Health Organization to include circumcision in its prevention policies a year ago.

Meaning that 40% of the men who had “this thing removed” still got AIDS. Little comfort for them. Mr. Ochanda, the odds aren’t that much in your favor — your best bet would to keep that “thing” in your shorts more often.

Seriously, I can just see it now — many African men will get circumcized based on the myth that they won’t be able to get AIDS, and they’ll think they’re home free, and they can do whatever (rather, whoever) they want, meaning the infection rate will soar even higher. This is what happened when African AIDS patients were administred the cocktail. They thought they were cured, when all the cocktail does is to mitigate the virus at best.

SCAMs

Mayor Slay:

STDs

According to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the City ranks high among US cities in the rate of infection for such sexually transmitted diseases as HIV, Chlamydia, and Gonorrhea.

Who has them? The City’s Health Department recently sent over some sobering statistics: approximately 31 percent of all STD cases are among teenagers, 12 to 18 years old. And 90 percent of STD cases (in which race is known) are African Americans.

That data is important because there are no cures or vaccines for HIV or AIDS, and because many STDS cause irreversible health problems. Knowing who is most likely to be infected and when, helps City health officials focus their efforts in the right places to save lives and improve health outcomes on prevention programs.

Really?  When a group of more than 60 “residents” at the city’s juvenile lockup, who fit into those “sobering statistics” of those most at risk, allowed themselves to be tested, not one of them was positive for HIV/AIDS.  The article didn’t say if any (or how many) tested positive for other STDs, but if it was high, I imagine the article would have said how many.

How does that work?  And how much money does the St. Louis City Health Department get because we all so think that STD infection rates are as high as they want us to think?

Letting My Own Postjudices Get Ahead of Me

P-D:

For young prisoners, frank talk about STDs

You’d have to drink 10 gallons of saliva, all at once, to contract HIV from an infected kissing partner. That’s one lesson Kamina Ballard taught a group of 20 teenagers Tuesday at the St. Louis City Juvenile Detention Center.

“Realistically, we don’t kiss that much,” she told the 14- and 15-year-olds.

Ballard and other city public health educators spend every Tuesday afternoon dispelling myths and offering information about sexually transmitted diseases for youth in the correctional facility.

It’s all part of the city health department’s push to reduce the number of STDs, particularly among young adults, who are most at-risk. The city recently scored the highest rates in the country for gonorrhea and chlamydia, with nearly two-thirds of cases coming from people between the ages of 12 and 24.

Why only the juvenile “correctional facility” in St. Louis City?  Juvenile offenders everywhere are susceptible to HIV, AIDS, syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea should they engage in certain behaviors.  Why educate only the juvenile inmates in St. Louis City and not anywhere else?

Also, I find it hard to believe that none of these young men and women haven’t heard these things before.  After all, nearly all of them have probably attended the St. Louis City Public Schools at least for a few years.

So Ballard … tells them that … oral sex is sex.

And why would they think otherwise?  Wouldn’t it be ironic if we found out that Dr. Ballard voted for Clinton in either ‘92, ‘96 or both?

After the weekly classes, anyone who wants to can get tested for syphilis or HIV. This week, seven of the boys volunteered. They are all automatically tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea when they enter the facility.

The health department’s education and testing program at the youth correctional facility started in March, and so far more than 60 teenagers have been tested for HIV and syphilis. None has tested positive.

While this doesn’t say anything about chlamydia and gonorrhea, it does say that this group of “more than 60 teenagers” is oh-for-the-table for HIV/AIDS.  And this is where perhaps my postjudices have affected my usually clairvoyant interpretation of news and current events.  We hear that St. Louis is at or near the top of the national rankings for cities’ infection rates for various STDs, yet in a group of more than 60 young (supposedly reckless) people from this city, individuals whom you think would be more likely to have STDs in this supposedly STD-rich city, not one is positive for HIV/AIDS.  It’s probably the same or not many more for other STDs.

We’re finding out that the UN admitted that it has deliberately fudged up HIV/AIDS infection rates around the world in order to hustle money to “fight” the “pandemic.”  I’m starting to think that we have been similarly snookered over American cities and STD rates.

Beating Back AIDS Is Not Magic

HealthDay:

FRIDAY, Nov. 30 (HealthDay News) — In the 26 years since scientists first spotted AIDS in America, millions of dollars have been poured into outreach efforts aimed at keeping young people clear of HIV, the virus that causes the disease.

But on the eve of World AIDS Day, a disturbing statistical fact has emerged in this country: The number of newly infected teens and young adults is suddenly on the rise.

And the question is, why?

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2001 to 2005 (the latest years available), the number of new cases of HIV infection diagnosed among 15-to-19-year-olds in the United States rose from 1,010 in 2001, held steady for the next three years, then jumped 20 percent in 2005, to 1,213 cases.

For young people aged 20 to 24, cases of new infection have climbed steadily, from 3,184 in 2001 to 3,876 in 2005.

One could easily talk about race here, but as one will see further down in this article, the rate of new HIV diagnoses among blacks is going down.

I think the answer has to do with the picture above.  Former NBA star Ervin “Magic” Johnson announced in 1991 that he was HIV-positive, and the prognosis then was that, with the right drug regimen and lifestyle changes, he would live on for another decade.  He has obviously lived a lot longer than that, and will probably live out the rest of his natural life, with the HIV under control.  He made many media appearances yesterday for World AIDS Day, and one of the anchorettes stated that the downside to Magic Johnson’s good health is that it might fool young and reckless people into thinking HIV/AIDS is no big deal anymore, and they can do whatever they want now.

Yoga Won’t Do the Trick

P-D:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Too little milk, sunshine and exercise: It’s an anti-bone trifecta. And for some kids, shockingly, it’s leading to rickets, the soft-bone scourge of the 19th century.

But cases of full-blown rickets are just the red flag: Bone specialists say possibly millions of seemingly healthy children aren’t building as much strong bone as they should - a gap that may leave them more vulnerable to bone-cracking osteoporosis later in life than their grandparents are.

And yet, public schools all over the country are banning tag and dodgeball like they were diseases much worse than rickets.