Great post Alex.

Very well put.

How can anyone thake this definition of 'AIDS' seriously?

The Bangui Definition

In 1985, the World Health Organization called a meeting in Bangui, the
capital of the Central African Republic, to define African AIDS. The
meeting was presided over by CDC official Joseph McCormick. He wrote
about it in his book "Level 4 Virus Hunters of the CDC," saying, "If I
could get everyone at the WHO meeting in Bangui to agree on a single,
simple definition of what an AIDS case was in Africa, then, imperfect as
the
definition might be, we could actually start counting the cases..." The
result was that African AIDS would be defined by physical symptoms:
fever, diarrhea, weight loss and coughing or itching. ("AIDS in Africa:
an

epidemiological paradigm." Science, 1986).

In Sub-Saharan Africa, about 60 percent of the population lives and
dies without safe drinking water, adequate food or basic sanitation. A
September, 2003 report in the Ugandan Daily "New Vision" outlined the
situation in Kampala, a city of approximately 1.3 million inhabitants,
which, like most tropical countries, experiences seasonal flooding. The
report describes "heaps of unclaimed garbage" among the crowded houses in

the flood zones and "countless pools of water [that] provide a breeding
ground for mosquitoes and create a dirty environment that favors
cholera."

"Latrines are built above water streams. During rains the area
residents usually open a hole to release feces from the latrines. The
rain
then
washes away the feces to streams, from where the [area residents] fetch
water. However, not many people have access to toilet facilities. Some
defecate in polythene bags, which they throw into the stream." They
call these, "flying toilets."

The state-run Ugandan National Water and Sewerage Corporation states
that currently 55 percent of Kampala is provided with treated water, and
only 8 percent with sewage reclamation.

Most rural villages are without any sanitary water source. People wash
clothes, bathe and dump untreated waste up and down stream from where
water is drawn. Watering holes are shared with animal populations, which
drink, bathe, urinate and defecate at the water source. Unmanaged human
waste pollutes water with infectious and often deadly bacteria.
Stagnant water breeds mosquitoes, which bring malaria. Infectious
diarrhea,
dysentery, cholera, TB, malaria and famine are the top killer in Africa.
But in 1985, these conditions defined AIDS.