Time to get malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis !!

[Jack]

Warren Buffett

The world's second richest man - who's now worth $44 billion - tells editor-at-large Carol Loomis he will start giving away 85% of his wealth in July - most of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Their foundation's activities, internationally famous, are focused on world health -- fighting such diseases as malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis -- and on improving U.S. libraries and high schools..



LINK!

[Bizzarofelice]

He's giving it in Berkshire stock which leads to the following question; will there be an arrangement to have it cashed in increments, or is there going to be a mass selling and subsequent price reduction in shares of Berkshire Hathaway?

[PSUFAN]

He's structuring it to avoid that. He's giving the gift incrementally.

[Risa]

He's structuring it to avoid that. He's giving the gift incrementally.

And what happens to the tax breaks in doing it this way?

[Bizzarofelice]

He's structuring it to avoid that. He's giving the gift incrementally.

And what happens to the tax breaks in doing it this way?

1) Not enough info to determine this. He already had a chaitable trust set up. I doubt he's buying 44 billion worth of annuities.

2) I don't think he's giving away 75% of his estate for a tax break.

[PSUFAN]

I beg your pardon...I never promised you an Ask Jeeves, Risa.

[BSmack]

I beg your pardon...I never promised you an Ask Jeeves, Risa.

Along with the race bait, there's gotta be a little class warfare.

[BSmack]

Hopefully they won't be wasting too much of that money on AIDS.

Yea, that would suck. I mean no reason we should invest in studying something that renders the human immune system completely ineffective. Now why would we want to cure THAT?

Or are you just looking forward to more dead Africans?

[Bizzarofelice]

Now why would we want to cure THAT?

Because this so-called "crisis" is completely overblown and is largely the result of irresponsible personal behavior.

You want to do some good for humanity? Cure cancer.

Or are you just looking forward to more dead Africans?

Quite frankly, yes. The sooner that continent is depopulated the better.

Agreed. Lets let Darwin clear some brush.

[Mister Bushice]

Well that won't be so much fun to watch, if AIDS turns into an airborne virus along the way somewhere now would it?

And he's giving the money away in increments to ensure it doesn't drop in value but will actually increase over time, therefore ensuring that the shareholders don't lose their investment, and that he will also be giving away more money.

Just as long as Melinda and not Bill is the one to mamage all that money, I'm ok. God forbid Bill gates gets involved and we all succumb to the Blue screen of death, or just lock up.

[BSmack]

Now why would we want to cure THAT?

Because this so-called "crisis" is completely overblown and is largely the result of irresponsible personal behavior. You want to do some good for humanity? Cure cancer.

You know, back in the early days of the outbreak, AIDS was known as "gay cancer". And now, there are those who feel that advances in AIDS research will also further cancer research.

http://www.ishipress.com/hodgkins.htm

Or are you just looking forward to more dead Africans?

Quite frankly, yes. The sooner that continent is depopulated the better.

Africa has 20 percent of the world's land area and a mere 12% of it's population. If any place could stand a little depopulation, it is Asia.

[BSmack]

But Asians are useful and productive people.

Your dependency on stereotypes is laughable.

AIDS is an overhyped, overblown joke. Wear a goddamn rubber. NEXT.

No doubt that sex education is necessary. But that doesn't diminish the imperative to study and learn from HIV/AIDS everything we can. Take this man as a case in point.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/ ... i_94079748

[BSmack]

It's no stereotype. They are, by and large, civilized and productive people. There is no denying the amount of commerce generated in Asia.

Most of which is sponsored by large multinational corporations and has minimal positive effect on the people themselves.

Contrast them to the universal failures in Africa. Africa's potential is wasted on Africans. They need to hurry up and get on with it. I'll even volunteer to sponsor a crate of machetes myself.

I dare say, coming out in favor of genocide?

You would be a whole lot more interesting were you not always playing the provocateur. At least post some pictures of ashes next time.

[Atomic Punk]

Well that won't be so much fun to watch, if AIDS turns into an airborne virus along the way somewhere now would it?

HIV doesn't do well outside exposed to the elements.

Sincerely,

Diego in Seattle's back

[Mister Bushice]

Well that won't be so much fun to watch, if AIDS turns into an airborne virus along the way somewhere now would it?

HIV doesn't do well outside exposed to the elements.

I could


sin,

HIV mutation #11

[BSmack]

Guess again, douchebag. Asia has one of the fastest rising standards of living in the world. They still got a ways to go, but they are clearly on the right track.

If you give someone with a penny to their name a dime, you have raised their "standard of living" by 1000%.

There's nothing wrong with genocide per se, provided that the people being wiped out are truly useless with no redeeming cultural value.

IN!

sin

[Risa]

Well that won't be so much fun to watch, if AIDS turns into an airborne virus along the way somewhere now would it?

HIV doesn't do well outside exposed to the elements.

I could


sin,

HIV mutation #11

joy. :(

[Risa]

Now why would we want to cure THAT?

Because this so-called "crisis" is completely overblown and is largely the result of irresponsible personal behavior.

You want to do some good for humanity? Cure cancer.

What happens when the cure runs afoul of local traditions or mores (ie - what's happening with the cure for hpv, which -- contrary to planned parenthood pamphlets -- is associated with cervical cancer)?

[Mike the Lab Rat]

Local traditions? Like raping infants in the belief that it will cure AIDS?

....or the African traditions of polygamy, women having anal sex to "preserve their virginity," social acceptance of married men soliciting prostitutes because "men need to have sex more," cultural refusal to use condoms because it is more "manly" to not use them, idiots in government refusing to believe that HIV causes AIDS (and stating their idiocy in public), etc.

The docs with whom I worked who had done HIV work in Africa told me often how frustrating it was (is?) to overcome BEHAVIORAL and CULTURAL issues in a deadly disease that is 100% preventable. One of the doctors, a woman from Uganda, said that she had an even harder time b/c bureaucrats wouldn't take her seriously due to her gender. She had thought that her being an African might overcome the paranoia over white, Western medicine, but all the government idjits saw was a skirt not worth listening to. If it weren't for all the innocents (wives and children) who are dying, it might be palatable to say "you brought this on yourselves, so you deserve it."

Risa has a point about the HPV vaccine. It is frigging amazing to me that ANYONE in the supposedly enlightened U.S. would give a knee-jerk negative response to an STD-preventing vaccine that would also markedly reduce a form of cancer based on some twisted, moronic "moral" basis. Every single person who honestly buys into the policy of withholding the vaccine because reducing HPV transmission might result in increased promiscuity is a fucking moron. Period.

[stuckinia]

Every single person who honestly buys into the policy of withholding the vaccine because reducing HPV transmission might result in increased promiscuity is a fucking moron. Period.

But...but...cervical cancer is God's way of smiting the promiscuous heathens.

[Mike the Lab Rat]

Well that won't be so much fun to watch, if AIDS turns into an airborne virus along the way somewhere now would it?

HIV doesn't do well outside exposed to the elements.

I could


sin,

HIV mutation #11

HIV has never mutated to a form that could remotely be considered airborne. In fact, the CDC has a page dealing with this rumor.

There's a bunch of other diseases that are FAR more worrisome for the general populace than HIV/AIDS.

[Mister Bushice]

Not so far it hasn't turned into something worse.

The whole point being that letting AIDS "thin the herd" rather than trying to stop it might just allow it to mutate into something worse in the process.

[Tom In VA]

Not so far it hasn't turned into something worse.

The whole point being that letting AIDS "thin the herd" rather than trying to stop it might just allow it to mutate into something worse in the process.

No question. I think the primary argument though is that there are a host of other diseases that have already reached that order of magnitude. In terms of priorities it would appear as if HIV could be and in some circles should be lower on the list.

[Mike the Lab Rat]

Not so far it hasn't turned into something worse.

The whole point being that letting AIDS "thin the herd" rather than trying to stop it might just allow it to mutate into something worse in the process.

Actually, the tendency in most long-standing viruses is to become LESS virulent, not more. A pathogen that wipes its hosts out too quickly winds up not being able to spread and thus shoots itself in the foot. Measles and chickenpox are examples of diseases that used to be devastating to human populations but became considerably less virulent (and in western cultures were designated "childhood diseases") over time. Yes, there are the occasional catastrophic epidemics (like the Spanish Influenza of 1918), but if you read up on them, they cut a heavy swath and then leave the survivors immune (or more adequately prepared biologically) to similar attacks.

HIV has been around so long that it'll probably evolve to become a less devastating disease, as did several of the other viral diseases prior to it.

There's a book by William McNeill titled "Plagues and Peoples" that does a nice job of discussing the history of infectious diseases and humans. I've been reading up on the topic for the infectious diseases elective I'm teaching next year and that book is probably the best (readable and comprehensive) so far...

[Mister Bushice]

What about Bird flu? That's being touted as the next great plague should it, when it mutates.

Is it because of the cross species thing?

[Mike the Lab Rat]

What about Bird flu? That's being touted as the next great plague should it, when it mutates.

Is it because of the cross species thing?

Partly. And partly because the last time an avian virus jumped over to humans and decided to also "go aerosol" it became better known as "the Spanish Flu" (which actually originated in either the U.S. , Britain, or France, depending on which source you believe).

If you want to freak out over the potential damage a new avian flu could cause, read Barry's "The Great Influenza" or watch the PBS "American Experience: Influenza 1918" The thing killed fast, killed scary, and tended to preferentially kill the healthiest individuals between 19 and 44.

The fact is that the bird flu virus has to mutate within a bird to infect humans, then it has to mutate to go after the respiratory tract instead of the intestinal tract. No one, and I mean no one knows specifically which base sequences confer those abilities or the mathematical probabilities involved for each event. A bird that carries the evolved "killer virus" could -by sheer chance- get sucked into a jet engine, hit by a car, etc. and even if it did infect a person, that person could be some freaking hermit in Nova Scotia.

The thing could just as likely wind up as big a "bust" scarewise as SARS....

[Mister Bushice]

What about Bird flu? That's being touted as the next great plague should it, when it mutates.

Is it because of the cross species thing?

Partly. And partly because the last time an avian virus jumped over to humans and decided to also "go aerosol" it became better known as "the Spanish Flu" (which actually originated in either the U.S. , Britain, or France, depending on which source you believe).

If you want to freak out over the potential damage a new avian flu could cause, read Barry's "The Great Influenza" or watch the PBS "American Experience: Influenza 1918" The thing killed fast, killed scary, and tended to preferentially kill the healthiest individuals between 19 and 44.

The fact is that the bird flu virus has to mutate within a bird to infect humans, then it has to mutate to go after the respiratory tract instead of the intestinal tract. No one, and I mean no one knows specifically which base sequences confer those abilities or the mathematical probabilities involved for each event. A bird that carries the evolved "killer virus" could -by sheer chance- get sucked into a jet engine, hit by a car, etc. and even if it did infect a person, that person could be some freaking hermit in Nova Scotia.

The thing could just as likely wind up as big a "bust" scarewise as SARS....

Isn't it really just a matter of time before something evolves to kill off a whole bunch of us? After travelling overseas, and driving through parts of Oakland, I have no doubts. :)

[Mike the Lab Rat]

Isn't it really just a matter of time before something evolves to kill off a whole bunch of us? After travelling overseas, and driving through parts of Oakland, I have no doubts. :)

From a pathogen's point of view, killing us all off doesn't work to meet its ends. That's why Ebola pretty much stays put - it kills the hosts too quickly to spread far.

The major problem is that now some schlub can get infected with a critter like Ebola and take a jet or whatever, going much farther much faster and with a whole bunch more folks around them to infect.

With 6 billion or so humans running around and with all the genetic variety in the mix, regardless of how devastating some disease might be, there's likely going to be some folks who are immune to it just by sheer dumb evolutionary luck. There were folks resistant to the plague back in the 14th century, and there are folks right now immune/resistant to HIV infection. "Culling the herd" with disease is just a form of natural selection. It'd suck to be on the "culled" end of it, but that's how it all works...

[Mister Bushice]

what sucks worse is being a victim of circumstance ie some asswipe taking a plane flight with the flu and giving all his passengers that gift.

During my trip from LAX through Japan all the japanese women were wearing surgical masks the entire flight. I have no idea if that does any good, but they were the only ones wearing em. Probably fallout from the SARS scare.

I usually dose up with Airborne and take along one of those little bottles of hand sanitizer every time, so far so good. After about 6 hours of a 14 hour flight those airplane shitters have gotta be as disease ridden as you can get, especially if its a flight with a lot of kids on it.

[Jack]

what sucks worse is being a victim of circumstance ie some asswipe taking a plane flight with the flu and giving all his passengers that gift.

During my trip from LAX through Japan all the japanese women were wearing surgical masks the entire flight. I have no idea if that does any good, but they were the only ones wearing em. Probably fallout from the SARS scare.

I usually dose up with Airborne and take along one of those little bottles of hand sanitizer every time, so far so good. After about 6 hours of a 14 hour flight those airplane shitters have gotta be as disease ridden as you can get, especially if its a flight with a lot of kids on it.

Our bodies are pretty amazing. Day after day, they work hard — digesting food, pumping blood and oxygen, sending signals from our brains and our nerves, and much more. But there is a group of tiny invaders that can make our bodies sick — they're called germs.

Some kids may think that germs are bugs or cooties or other gross stuff. Actually, germs are tiny organisms, or living things, that can cause disease. Germs are so small and sneaky that they creep into our bodies without being noticed. In fact, germs are so tiny that you need to use a microscope to see them. When they get in our bodies, we don't know what hit us until we have symptoms that say we've been attacked!

What Types of Germs Are There?
Germs are found all over the world, in all kinds of places. There are four major types of germs: bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa. They can invade plants, animals, and people, and sometimes they make us sick.

Bacteria (say: back-teer-ee-uh) are tiny, one-cell creatures that get nutrients from their environments in order to live. In some cases that environment is a human body. Bacteria can reproduce outside of the body or within the body as they cause infections. Some infections bacteria cause include sore throats (tonsillitis or strep throat), ear infections, cavities, and pneumonia (say: new-mo-nyuh).

But not all bacteria are bad. Some bacteria are good for our bodies — they help keep things in balance. Good bacteria live in our intestines and help us use the nutrients in the food we eat and make waste from what's left over. We couldn't make the most of a healthy meal without these important helper germs! Some bacteria are also used by scientists in labs to produce medicines and vaccines (say: vak-seens).


Viruses (say: vy-rus-iz) need to be inside living cells to grow and reproduce. Most viruses can't survive very long if they're not inside a living thing like a plant, animal, or person. Whatever a virus lives in is called its host. When viruses get inside people's bodies, they can spread and make people sick. Viruses cause chickenpox, measles, flu, and many other diseases. Because some viruses can live for a while on something like a doorknob or countertop, be sure to wash your hands regularly!

Fungi (say: fun-guy) are multi-cell (made of many cells), plant-like organisms. Unlike other plants, fungi cannot make their own food from soil, water, and air. Instead, fungi get their nutrition from plants, people, and animals. They love to live in damp, warm places, and most fungi are not dangerous. An example of something caused by fungi is athlete's foot, that itchy rash that teens and adults sometimes get between their toes.

Protozoa (say: pro-toh-zoh-uh) are one-cell organisms that love moisture and often spread diseases through water. Some protozoa cause intestinal infections that lead to diarrhea (runny poop), nausea, and belly pain.

What Do Germs Do?
Once germs invade our bodies, they snuggle in for a long stay. They gobble up nutrients and energy, and can produce toxins (say: tak-sinz), which are like poisons. Those toxins can cause symptoms of common infections, like fevers, sniffles, rashes, coughing, vomiting, and diarrhea.

How do doctors figure out what germs are doing? They take a closer look. By looking at samples of blood and other fluids under a microscope or sending these samples to a laboratory for more tests, doctors can tell which germs are living in your body and how they are making you sick.

How Can You Protect Yourself From Germs?
Most germs are spread through the air in sneezes, coughs, or even breaths. Germs can also spread in sweat, saliva, and blood. Some pass from person to person by touching something that is contaminated, like shaking hands with someone who has a cold and then touching your own nose. So the best way to protect yourself from germs is to steer clear of the things that can spread them:

Cover your nose and mouth when you sneeze and cover your mouth when you cough to keep from spreading germs.

Remember the two words germs fear — soap and water. Washing your hands well and often is the best way to beat these tiny warriors. Wash your hands every time you cough or sneeze, before you eat or prepare foods, after you use the bathroom, after you touch animals and pets, after you play outside, and after you visit a sick relative or friend.

Using tissues for your sneezes and sniffles is another great weapon against germs. But don't just throw tissues on the floor to pick up later. Toss them in the trash and, again, wash your hands!

Now that you know the facts about germs, you may still pick up a cough or a cold once in a while, but you'll be ready to keep most of those invading germs from moving in.

Reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD
Date reviewed: May 2006