-- Posted by guitarist451 at 8:44 am on April 5, 2008 HIV tests are faulty and never test for the presence of actual HIV. HIV test cutoff points for the amount of antibodies you have "towards HIV" are different in different hospitals and areas around the world. AIDS statistics are seriously skewed. AZT is a drug that makes enormous amounts of money for drug companies and since they are so rich they have a large influence on what the people believe and they keep making people think that they should take AZT. HIV is harmless. AIDS is not caused by HIV, but by unhealthy living. Just do some research and see what you find if you really look into it I bet you'll agree with me. -- Posted by stelliesboy at 8:47 am on April 5, 2008 Good to know you have everything worked out hey -- Posted by DrewElizabeth at 8:52 am on April 5, 2008 um are u fucking retarded dude HIV is AIDs u stupid fuck my aunt has it dumbass maybe u should go to ur local health clinic and find out HIV is what starts AIDS and is  form of AIDS -- Posted by thnku4thvenom at 8:54 am on April 5, 2008 Quote: from DrewElizabeth at 8:52 am on April 5, 2008 um are u fucking retarded dude HIV is AIDs u stupid fuck my aunt has it dumbass maybe u should go to ur local health clinic and find out HIV is what starts AIDS and is form of AIDS its true hivs ar from aids, my school just had a 2 hour assembly on weds talking about aids and hivs...it wuz gross, boring, and scary. -- Posted by nikki at 8:55 am on April 5, 2008 Uh, proof? I don't believe you by the way. -- Posted by Kuzaki at 8:55 am on April 5, 2008 It's incredible the amount of people who read one article and then think they're an expert on a subject. AIDS is very, very related to HIV. Human immunodeficiency virus is what weakens the body's immune system. AIDS stands for "acquired immunodeficiency syndrome". You "acquire" a weakened immune system because the previous virus (HIV) has weakened it. HIV is not harmless, as it is the weakening of the immune system which leads to the patient contracting AIDS and some opportunistic infections. AIDS is allowed to occur because of HIV, although unhealthy living does play a major part in just how quickly a patient's health declines. So it appears it is you that needs to do more research. -- Posted by Maxxie at 8:55 am on April 5, 2008 You're fucking retarded.. -- Posted by Tubbz at 8:57 am on April 5, 2008 great now cure it -- Posted by guitarist451 at 8:59 am on April 5, 2008 i'm sticking true to my facts until my mind is changed by something other than "but it is related! it causes it!" -- Posted by BLUEAUTOMATIC at 9:02 am on April 5, 2008 Quote: from thnku4thvenom at 4:54 pm on April 5, 2008 Quote: from DrewElizabeth at 8:52 am on April 5, 2008 um are u fucking retarded dude HIV is AIDs u stupid fuck my aunt has it dumbass maybe u should go to ur local health clinic and find out HIV is what starts AIDS and is  form of AIDS its true hivs ar from aids, my school just had a 2 hour assembly on weds talking about aids and hivs...it wuz gross, boring, and scary. 'hivs ar from aids' I think you should've listened more in that 2 hour assembly you had. -- Posted by The Samsoniteman at 9:04 am on April 5, 2008 HIV can be tested for using an ELISA test which can detect HIV antibodies in a diluted sample. The result of an ELISA test is a proportion number. A Western blot test is then used to determine whether the sample is HIV positive or negative. It is true that there is a certain amount of controversy over the cut-off point between a positive and negative result. Simple HIV blood tests do have significant rate of false positives however far more expensive and precise tests are used to minimise this vastly. AZT delays the progression of HIV and this is supported by very well-covered science. You can argue against the facts all you want but you have to ignore the numerous independent research that has been carried out on the drug. Secondly, HIV is not "harmless". It can cause AIDS. I have no idea why you're arguing that it doesn't, but you're being disturbingly irresponsible by putting people's health at risk. The people who argue that HIV does not cause AIDS cherry-pick and misrepresent largely outdated data. -- Posted by The Samsoniteman at 9:06 am on April 5, 2008 Quote: from guitarist451 at 4:59 pm on April 5, 2008 i'm sticking true to my facts until my mind is changed by something other than "but it is related! it causes it!" You are the one who is challenging the accepted evidence so you are the one who must support your theory with evidence. -- Posted by stelliesboy at 9:08 am on April 5, 2008 Guys its pretty simple. you get HIV then your CD4 count (white blood cells) goes down, if you dont take the arv's this will happen faster. Then when your CD4 count goes so far down, we call it AIDS. From then on, every cold you get can snowball into something worse which can result in death. The meds are to expensive I agree with that. I all his because I work with HIV/AIDS on a daily basis -- Posted by guitarist451 at 9:11 am on April 5, 2008 They say that HIV attacks and kills the T-cells but it cannot kill nearly enough T-cells to do harm and the cells regenerate at an extremely faster rate than they are killed off. I don't even need to argue I'm not 100% on this but I have seen nothing that really sways my stance on it so unless you present me with something I'm gonna believe what I believe. If I test HIV positive I'm not going to worry about it. -- Posted by exceedinglyrare at 9:14 am on April 5, 2008 Quote: from guitarist451 at 12:11 pm on April 5, 2008 They say that HIV attacks and kills the T-cells but it cannot kill nearly enough T-cells to do harm and the cells regenerate at an extremely faster rate than they are killed off. I don't even need to argue I'm not 100% on this but I have seen nothing that really sways my stance on it so unless you present me with something I'm gonna believe what I believe. If I test HIV positive I'm not going to worry about it. The gene pool thanks you for that. Your future sexual partners, on the other hand, will not. -- Posted by The Samsoniteman at 9:21 am on April 5, 2008 Quote: from guitarist451 at 5:11 pm on April 5, 2008 They say that HIV attacks and kills the T-cells but it cannot kill nearly enough T-cells to do harm and the cells regenerate at an extremely faster rate than they are killed off. Evidence? Source? This is a common misconception that you've fallen for; hook, line and sinker. Techniques such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have enabled scientists to demonstrate that a much larger proportion of CD4+ T cells are infected than previously realized, particularly in lymphoid tissues. Robert Gallo, a preeminent HIV virologist, suggests that as many as 3% of CD4+ T cells show signs of HIV invasion. Macrophages and other cell types are also infected with HIV and serve as reservoirs for the virus. Although the fraction of CD4+ T cells that is infected with HIV at any given time is never high (only a small subset of activated cells serve as ideal targets of infection), several groups have shown that rapid cycles of death of infected cells and infection of new target cells occur throughout the course of disease. Furthermore, like other viruses, HIV is able to suppress the immune system by secreting proteins that interfere with it. For example, HIV's coat protein, gp120, sheds from viral particles and binds to the CD4 receptors of otherwise healthy T cells; this interferes with the normal function of these signalling receptors. Another HIV protein, Tat, has been demonstrated to suppress T cell activity. This behavior is not significantly different in quality from, say, the influenza viruses, which are well-known to secrete immunosuppressive proteins which can slow down the antiviral immune response. Infected lymphocytes express the Fas ligand, a cell-surface protein that triggers the death of neighboring uninfected T cells expressing the Fas receptor. This "bystander killing" effect shows that great harm can be caused to the immune system even with a limited number of infected cells. link I don't even need to argue I'm not 100% on this but I have seen nothing that really sways my stance on it so unless you present me with something I'm gonna believe what I believe. So you believe this theory with no evidence to support it. Great. What an honourable cause, putting lives in danger to suit yourself. If I test HIV positive I'm not going to worry about it. In that case there is a very high chance that you will die of AIDS. -- Posted by guitarist451 at 10:45 am on April 5, 2008 azt is putting lives in danger much more than testing positive for hiv and simply living healthily without taking dangerous drugs. wait and see in a few years or decades we'll see what the real deal is. -- Posted by TheOtherHorseman at 2:15 pm on April 5, 2008 Guitarist, you are one flat-out stupid son of a bitch. "LOL science doesn't know anything. I, mighty internet retard teen, will skim over fourth-hand data I find on the websites of deluded morons and will therefore have the knowledge sufficient to challenge the findings of people who professionally study HIV with state of the art equipment and procedures." -- Posted by boy4boy15 at 8:32 pm on April 5, 2008 HIV/AIDS was created by the government in the 1950s to kill off homosexuals and black people. That 'virus' has no natural cure, and did not come from this earth =P -- Posted by nikki at 3:50 am on April 6, 2008 Quote: from boy4boy15 at 4:32 am on April 6, 2008 HIV/AIDS was created by the government in the 1950s to kill off homosexuals and black people. That 'virus' has no natural cure, and did not come from this earth =P What on earth? I've never actually heard anything so ridiculous. -- Posted by Khadgar at 10:22 am on April 6, 2008 Quote: from Nikki at 3:50 am on April 6, 2008 Quote: from boy4boy15 at 4:32 am on April 6, 2008 HIV/AIDS was created by the government in the 1950s to kill off homosexuals and black people. That 'virus' has no natural cure, and did not come from this earth =P What on earth? I've never actually heard anything so ridiculous. It's more believable than the OP. -- Posted by telomere13 at 11:25 am on April 6, 2008 Quote: from guitarist451 at 12:45 pm on April 5, 2008 azt is putting lives in danger much more than testing positive for hiv and simply living healthily without taking dangerous drugs. wait and see in a few years or decades we'll see what the real deal is. I encourage you to read this article on Wikipedia (it cites a large number of sources). -- Posted by nikki at 11:59 am on April 6, 2008 Quote: from Khadgar at 6:22 pm on April 6, 2008 Quote: from Nikki at 3:50 am on April 6, 2008 Quote: from boy4boy15 at 4:32 am on April 6, 2008 HIV/AIDS was created by the government in the 1950s to kill off homosexuals and black people. That 'virus' has no natural cure, and did not come from this earth =P    What on earth? I've never actually heard anything so ridiculous. It's more believable than the OP. The sad thing is, you do have a point. -- Posted by da bears at 8:52 am on May 9, 2008 What a coincidence it is that so many babies born with AIDS have mothers with it.