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There is a well known axiom that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. This is the case here. AIDS activists have made such a big issue out of it that it has gained a lot of notoriety. The fact that AIDS has become Hollywood chic hasn't hurt either. Although it is a communicable disease, medically speaking AIDS IS 100% PREVENTABLE. First of all, it is more difficult to get AIDS than originally thought. There must be an exchange of body fluids. Barring open wounds/sores you cannot get aids from someone by hugging them. Nor can you get it by someone spitting on you (unless you lick it off). And you definitely cannot get it from toilet seats. The main vectors of the AIDS virus are multiple sex partners and shared needles. If you are monogamous and don't do drugs you are almost 100% safe from AIDS. Also, technically speaking, you don't die from AIDS either. AIDS strips your immune system of its ability to protect you from a variety of fatal diseases. It is these diseases that kill you, not the AIDS virus. Admitidly, this is a fine distinction to someone dying from the effects of AIDS. Related subject: Have you ever wondered what happened to those self-administered AIDS testing kits? If you were my student you would know that plus everything there is to know about Parkinson's Disease with no increase in tuition. In medical tests there are two factors that affect the accuracy: sensitivity and selecticity (also called specificity). Sensitivity refers to how well a test detects the presence of a disease. A test that detects 95 occurences of a condition out of 100 has a sensitivity of 95%. In practical terms this means that 5% of the people who have the condition will test negative for it, known as a False Negative. Selectivity (specificity) refers to a test's ability to detect only that specific condition and none other. A test that indicates the presence of the condition 5 times when administered to 100 people without the condition has a selectivity of 95%. This means that 5% of the people who do not have the condition will test positive, known as a False Positive. Most advertisements give only one number for the "accuracy" of a test. This is usually either the sensitivity or an avereage of the two. Now let's consider the Little Stiverson Beer Can Rejuvinator and AIDS Testing Kit with an advertised "accuracy" of 99.9%. Let us assume this is the figure for both selectivity and sensitivity. Let us further assume that this test is administered to every citizen in the USA. This would give us a population base of about 300 million people. Since the number of citizens with AIDS is less than 1 million we will consider this population to be AIDS free for the purposes of this demonstation. If a test that is 99.9% sensitive is administed to 300 million people without the condition, .001 * 300,000,000 = 300,000 of them will test positive even though they do not have the disease. Now tell me, what business will risk the chance of 300,000 lawsuits when, after years of worry and expence, those people find out they did not realy have the disease? In fact, the actual figures are much higher than that. The AIDS test used by the Red Cross to test donated blood had 10 FALSE POSITIVES for every single TRUE POSITIVE! That is why they stopped testing for AIDS. This would also be a good argument against the true validity of drug testing in the workplace. Just thought I would throw this in at no extra charge. (So I gave my three cents worth instead of two cents!) Bruce 57/9 Sinemet, Mirapex & Tazmar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bruce G. Warr, Ph.D. (C) | "Experience is what enables us to recognize Healthcare Informatics Lab | a mistake the next time we make it." Information Systems Dept. |-------------------------------------------- University of Maryland | (V) (410)455-3206 (F) (410)455-1073 Baltimore County | http://umbc.edu/~warr ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~