Random Irritations

[KenL]

People who pull in far too close in front of you on a motorway.
Even worse, those who do so and apply their brakes.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Don’t think it’s a random irritation but not sure where to post it

Watching ER at the moment and it’s the storyline of one of them getting HIV

I remember 80’s and then 90’s when it was huge news when someone contracted HIV and then passed away it was front page news


Now you don’t hear a peep about HIV , has it got to the stage where medication is reducing the impact of HIV and are less people catching it ?

There are drugs now that can suppress it somehow now I believe. What I do know now, is that the highest infection rate is now older heterosexuals, and not the gay community.

 

[The Squirrel]

Don’t think it’s a random irritation but not sure where to post it

Watching ER at the moment and it’s the storyline of one of them getting HIV

I remember 80’s and then 90’s when it was huge news when someone contracted HIV and then passed away it was front page news


Now you don’t hear a peep about HIV , has it got to the stage where medication is reducing the impact of HIV and are less people catching it ?

Opposite of a random irritation. It’s a hugely good thing - a triumph of modern medicine against a problem that looked, for a while, unsolvable.

HIV is now (in developed countries) a chronic condition managed by medication rather than a fatal disease involving a horrible death. Triple antiretrovirals are now so effective that a correctly medicated HIV patient’s viral load in the blood will be undetectable (i.e. zero) and remains that way - the virus never progresses towards AIDS. We don’t know how long this medication is effective only because it hasn’t stopped working yet even on patients medicated this way for decades - so all the evidence so far is that it seems to be effective for a lifetime.

Here’s a thought; the safest person to have a needlestick/sharps injury from, or have unprotected sex with is now a correctly medicated and tested HIV+ person. Their blood viral load, and therefore infectivity, are definitely zero. A random untested member of the public’s HIV viral load is only PROBABLY zero….

There is therefore no reason to treat these people any differently than anyone else.

It will take a generation or two for healthcare and societal attitudes to change though. The lifting of the ban on HIV+ people providing healthcare as doctors/nurses/dentists for example (absolutely no logical reason they shouldn’t given the info’ set out above) took a lot longer than it should have, ruining careers in the process. If you asked the general public (who mostly have little idea of the info’ above but still have the emotional reaction to the 80s gravestone adverts) then they likely wouldn’t support the lifting of that ban - so just as well it was done fairly quietly.

 

[Lucifer MorningStar]

Don’t think it’s a random irritation but not sure where to post it

Watching ER at the moment and it’s the storyline of one of them getting HIV

I remember 80’s and then 90’s when it was huge news when someone contracted HIV and then passed away it was front page news


Now you don’t hear a peep about HIV , has it got to the stage where medication is reducing the impact of HIV and are less people catching it ?

This is an interesting and hard one to speak about without some taking offence. I would argue it’s hugely positive changes, medical development and due to societal changes and learning from mistakes of seeing it as a disease contracted by the “GAY” community for being dirty and disgusting.

Now I mean no offence in that, that’s merely how it was portrayed in the 80s when I was a kid. There was a huge stigma around the Gay community, them not being normal and this disease was limited to them and other minority groups so people looked down on it. As a result there was never truly enough done to protect people from it nor enough done to remove the stigma, instead it was reported in national papers not because it was sad but more highlighting who had it and how they got it. The fact people were referred to as HIV/AIDS victims shows how wrong society was in how they viewed it. Others with life threatening illnesses were never referred to as Victims!

Look at the uproar that occurred when Princess Diana openly hugged and shook hands with an AIDS patient, the press went into meltdown.

Thankfully society has learnt and is not as bigoted and evolved into accepting people for who they are not their sexuality, race , gender etc. (there’s still some idiots out there, but as whole we’re a lot better)

As a result the money and effort was put into develop drugs, treatments, improving life quality etc. So what Id argue this is not an irritation but a hugely positive step for everyone. Hopefully things can only get better as well.

Edit: just saw Squirrels response as I hit save on my post!

 

[Orikoru]

Is it just me or have we had about 3 weeks of non-stop gale force winds?? Bugger off already!

 

[Hobbit]

Opposite of a random irritation. It’s a hugely good thing - a triumph of modern medicine against a problem that looked, for a while, unsolvable.

HIV is now (in developed countries) a chronic condition managed by medication rather than a fatal disease involving a horrible death. Triple antiretrovirals are now so effective that a correctly medicated HIV patient’s viral load in the blood will be undetectable (i.e. zero) and remains that way - the virus never progresses towards AIDS. We don’t know how long this medication is effective only because it hasn’t stopped working yet even on patients medicated this way for decades - so all the evidence so far is that it seems to be effective for a lifetime.

Here’s a thought; the safest person to have a needlestick/sharps injury from, or have unprotected sex with is now a correctly medicated and tested HIV+ person. Their blood viral load, and therefore infectivity, are definitely zero. A random untested member of the public’s HIV viral load is only PROBABLY zero….

There is therefore no reason to treat these people any differently than anyone else.

It will take a generation or two for healthcare and societal attitudes to change though. The lifting of the ban on HIV+ people providing healthcare as doctors/nurses/dentists for example (absolutely no logical reason they shouldn’t given the info’ set out above) took a lot longer than it should have, ruining careers in the process. If you asked the general public (who mostly have little idea of the info’ above but still have the emotional reaction to the 80s gravestone adverts) then they likely wouldn’t support the lifting of that ban - so just as well it was done fairly quietly.

Sadly, my cousin died from AIDS before there were the meds to counter it. Doubly sad was he was a haemophiliac who had been given a contaminated factor-8 transfusion.

Sometimes, life sucks.