HIV Support Group

It can be confusing to have both legal definitions and medical definitions for a condition. For people with their own health insurance or able to pay for medical care out of pocket, the legal definitions do not matter. But to qualify for government assistance the medical definitions do not matter, only the legal ones do.

I am a researcher, PhD not MD, and I am not familiar with all the legal or medical definitions, but I do understand why they are both used in different settings for different purposes.

Right and it is also an important designation for people who have no ins., or funds, for healthcare, it means more eligibility to have AIDS as opposed to HIV...........................

Oh........lol...........just re-read Dr. Duke's post, I just repeated what he said.................sorry......................LOL.........................long week here....

here is a link to current guidelines in the USA

http://aidsinfo.nih.gov/Guidelines...

Be aware that over the years that the time to begin treatment and the type of treatment have changed many times. The guidelines are an excellent place to start. Also, you need to know that these are not worldwide guidelines. This is the opinion of the Department of Health and Human Services. This opinion though based on a great deal of solid information is not always timely nor is completely free of political agendas.
Regarding "professional advice": many call themselves pros who are not. Simple questions to know for sure: 1. name ten HIV scientists, 2. what was the title of the last ariticle about HIV/AIDS that you read (name of medical journal and article name). A true knowlegable professional is eager to share their knowledge.
HIV is a medical problem not a "legal definition" decided by drunken whore mongers in some legislative branch. If you need treatment, look for ways to get treatment, be relentless! Consider all alternatives, clinical trails, drug company assistance, generic drugs, all sorts of government programs, other countries etc. etc. etc.
Don't suffer because you live on the wrong side of a geopolitical border or a wacked out social designation. You have the right to live, the right live healthy and the right to enjoy life!
Your concern is your life and quality of life. Put these values before all legal, social, and economic considerations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_N... did you know that the person who INVENTED the "viral load test" said that it is 100% UNRELIABLE in the HIV world. And did you know that people who test HIV NEGATIVE will show a viral load if they take the test? its NON specific and if yoiu havent tested positive they wont even GIVE YOU a viral load test because ...... NEGATIVE PEOPLE SHOW VIRAL LOADS. why...? because HIV TESTS ARE NOT ACCURATE... if you were recently sick or over stressed or had any one of a hundred illnesses in your life you can show a positive result on an HIV test and then your whole life will change even though you may not even have hiv. Read the pamphlet in an HIV test "this test is not to be used to diagnose HIV, presently there is no way to confirm HIV in human blood" something along those lines. Dr. Duke will fight me im sure. lol but i dont mind, and hes a good guy so we can keep it civil

I'm not at all interested in "fighting" Jersey Fresh. I have a lot of understanding why HIV seropositive people can be motivated to believe the misinformation put out by groups of people (such as the Rethinking AIDS group) who claim that HIV does not exist, or that HIV exists but is harmless, etc.

It really sucks that HIV-1 and HIV-2 cause AIDS in a percentage of people infected with them. It is bad news, and denial of bad news is a very natural and expected human reaction.

Deciding when or if to seek treatment of HIV infection, or to simply stick ones head in the sand and ignore it, is a personal choice. Not everyone has equal ability to make one choice or the other, nor to act on the choices they make. Some people do not have health insurance or have other reasons why they cannot get the best available treatment, even if they choose to get treated.

Misinformation about health matters is a serious problem. There are more people who make false claims about bogus "treatments" and "cures" for HIV infection, cancer and other serious problems, than there are people who claim that HIV or cancer simply don't exist.

It would indeed be nice if HIV did not exist, or if cancer could be cured or prevented by sleeping on a magnet or something. But the real world is not the ideal world. Many parts of the real world suck. All we can do, is make the best of the cards we are dealt, and try to help others handle their lives too.

why do negative people show viral load on an HIV test? Why does the pamphlet say what it says? in the viral load test they splice and piece together many different RNA from several different genetic material manufactured by man and call it "hiv" how does that make sense? Anything you can say about hiv has a perfectly good explanation. Find me a perfectly healthy person who isnt a drug user or homosexual or hemopheliac... i mean a completely perfectly healthy human being who eats right and exercises and has "hiv" but doesnt take any meds and dies...?? ive never seen it... ever.... but i can point you to hundreds of thousands like that who take the meds and die

Not trying to get into a debate either but have been working with AIDS patients for almost twenty years and have seen many die on and off meds even "straight" people, not even going to ask about the "homosexual" comment!

are you a "dissident" cause I think most on this board think it exists, and if it doesn't somebody been doin somethin wrong...................???

no i wouldn't say I'm a dissident. but alot of things don't make sense to me. i think there's somewhere in the middle that needs to be met and that science and doctors have certainly failed in almost every aspect of the "disease" So you have met a heterosexual male who takes perfect care of himself and never took recreational drugs, never took a single HIV med after his diagnosis and then still died of aids??? I havent been able to find a single case.... I've seen it with people who abused drugs. but never just your average healthy jock from the middle of nowhere who tests positive and then dies of some crazy illness.

oh but ill tell you what i HAVE seen. people test HIV positive who have never done IV drugs or had a blood transfusion, but every person they've ever been with sexually test negative.... explain that? I've also seen healthy people test positive at a check up, then take meds and die within a few years... and other people test positive and refuse meds and are healthier than you and I 20 years later with not a single sickness...... I've seen a husband test positive and his wife of 10 years test negative after 10 years of unprotected sex and all 3 of their kids test negative as well and he never cheated on his wife... and i've seen a mother test positive and her husband test negative along with their kids all testing negative.... a mother and her kids share blood when theyr'e in the whomb... how does a baby not get it.... even without meds its pretty rare... and then how can they say "this AZT will keep your baby from getting HIV while you're pregnant" when its never been proven to be true especially since mother to child transmission is prettty effin rare.... poeple with the normal opinion have NO answer for these questions or say things like "the person is a slow progressor thats why hes still healthy" or other outlandish things. I know its illegal but I bet a great experiment would be to test someone... and if they're positive, tell them they're negative and watch them live a full happy healthy life. that would be enough proof right there.