AIDS- Cut the Hype?

Recently, the National Center for Health Statistics released figures detailing the leading causes of death in 1991. The results are shown below. Contrary to what I expected, AIDS was not near the top of the list. Instead, the main killers were heart disease and cancer, which accounted for nearly 57% of all deaths combined. Stroke was a distant third, claiming 6.6%. Other killers listed ahead of HIV ranged from accidents and suicide to chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. AIDS was listed ninth, claiming 29,500 lives, about 1.4%.

My first theory for the overpublicity rested on the fact that AIDS is preventable. I found this theory to be flawed, however, when it occurred to me that many occurrences of cancer, heart disease, stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (which include afflictions such as bronchitis, asthma, and emphysema) could have been prevented had the victim not been a smoker. In addition, countless accidents and nearly all suicides are preventable. Why is society so concerned about HIV infection?

My next idea centered on the fact that there is no cure for AIDS, which makes it very dangerous; this idea was also flawed. Granted, the concept of curing doesn't work well with someone in an accident, but cancer is an ailment that is potentially curable but currently is not. Don't get me wrong, there are also a great number of cancer fund-raisers and research projects, but I don't see seventeen cancer commercials for each AIDS commercial. Am I watching the wrong channels, or is the media misrepresenting the threat that AIDS presents?

The only other explanation I could conjure up to justify why AIDS is so prominent in our culture theorized that it is spreading quickly. HIV was tenth on last year's list, which would be a difference of about 7,500 deaths, or .4%. I am not familiar enough with death rate statistics to know if that is a large increase, but it's either that or people find AIDS interesting because they associate it with sex.

The other thing that bothers me about the AIDS hoopla I see, hear and read about is the solution it always suggests, "Use a condom." The message seems to be that condoms equal totally safe sex, which is a lie. Due to a large number of factors, condoms have a failure rate of about 14%. In order to be a true safeguard against AIDS or any other sexually transmitted disease, condoms must not fail. The only 100% reliable solution is abstinence. To quote Dr. Robert Noble, an infectious disease expert at the University of Kentucky, "If the condom breaks, you may die."

While others continue to praise and to promote AIDS awareness campaigns and "safe sex" messages, I remain skeptical and unconvinced that these programs are essential or extraordinarily helpful. To overreact to a topic and then to suggest a solution that does not necessarily work is, in my opinion, both superfluous and deceptive. My message to those who organize such campaigns is this: shape up or shut up. If you want to make a difference, invest your time in fighting the causes that kill four times as many people, or at least suggest a solution that is more than 86% reliable.

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