Give your parents condoms for Christmas
 

Have you seen the news stories about the growing incidence of HIV/AIDS in people over 50?

Hilarious and sad at the same time.

They think, I guess, that since pregnancy is not an issue, there's no need for protection.

You'd think with older people having lots more contact with health care providers as they do, someone would have thought to test for HIV along the way.

Sadly, the era of free love is long gone.

But it was fun while it lasted!

Did you also hear that the number cited for new HIV/AIDS infections and total infections in Africa has been grossly over-estimated? A greater than 25% over-estimate because of selection bias. Funny, eh.

what is selection bias? A statistical term?

I don't pretend to understand statistics, but I don't believe such an overestimation means there's not a serious problem.

Regardless, charities across the spectrum in Africa think it's a huge problem.
Certainly UK Blood Donors do too - their guidelines concerning having sex with someone recently from Africa are strict.

Anyway - back to OT.
Another reason to be glad my parents are still together!

Selection bias means you are not choosing random people to ask.

For example, let's say I wanted to find out how popular the Cellar was compared to other websites, so I posted a poll on the Cellar about it. My results would show that almost 100% of people think the Cellar is awesome! But that would be utterly false because of selection bias.

Thank you, Ms. Clod. So they're . . . only asking people who are being treated already or something?

It may be something like people reporting to health care clinics, and then adding a percentage on for those not yet ill?

But the issues they have with those already diagnosed and those dying/ dead and leaving families are damaging enough.

Why not, my parents bought mine when I was younger. Put them on their account at the pharmacy, was very nice of them.

Sorry to swerve 'off-topic' again, but here's the article I was talking about.

The most interesting bits:

The latest estimates, due to be released publicly Tuesday, put the number of annual new HIV infections at 2.5 million, a cut of more than 40 percent from last year's estimate, documents show. The worldwide total of people infected with HIV -- estimated a year ago at nearly 40 million and rising -- now will be reported as 33 million.

Among the reasons for the overestimate is methodology; U.N. officials traditionally based their national HIV estimates on infection rates among pregnant women receiving prenatal care. As a group, such women were younger, more urban, wealthier and likely to be more sexually active than populations as a whole, according to recent studies.

Some researchers, however, contend that persistent overestimates in the widely quoted U.N. reports have long skewed funding decisions and obscured potential lessons about how to slow the spread of HIV. Critics have also said that U.N. officials overstated the extent of the epidemic to help gather political and financial support for combating AIDS.

The academic bits of the blogosphere have much more on this.

well, good. And now maybe they can address the brutal rape epidemics in parts of Africa, in particular the Congo (DRC) which purportedly, is at least partially fueled by persistent rumers that intercourse with a virgin will cure AIDS.

We should oppose condoms for seniors! It condones and encourages sexual behavior! We should be teaching abstinence, chastity and purity.
[/fundy]

At least they are still gettin' it on! Way to go!

Gee thanks for that mental image, shina.

No.

They're a bunch of old floozies!:D