Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!ginosko!usc!ucla-cs!brianl@uunet.uu.net
From: brianl@uunet.uu.net (Brian Larsen)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: Re: Get tested
Message-ID: <28082@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 12 Oct 89 18:18:29 GMT
References: <27888@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> <27972@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
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Reply-To: brianl@uunet.uu.net (Brian Larsen)
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Archive-number: 1344

In article <27972@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> uvm-gen!jay@banzai.PCC.COM (Jay Schuster) writes:
>Wounded.Bird@f38.n135.z1.fidonet.org (Wounded Bird) writes:
>>YOU CAN BE INFECTED WITH HIV FOR MANY YEARS AND NOT KNOW IT! GET
>>A CONFIDENTIAL TEST. The life you save may be your best friend!

>Better yet, don't get tested, and change your behavior as if you
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>had tested positive.

I think that is a very irresponsible statement to make Jay.
It reminds me of myself a couple of years ago (when I didn't 
know my status) and IMHO it is a clear indication of denial.

Everyone should get tested!
There is annonymous testing available.  The most important factor
is that early intervention has been proven to be the key in post-
poning the onset of AIDS.  That is the sooner you know, and begin
AZT, the longer you'll be around to take advantage of the next wave
of medicine.  It has also been the case, that for people who do
not get tested and only find out after they fall ill, that their
immune systems have been so depleted that recovery is much more
difficult (if at all).  

A personal situation came up recently with a friend of mine, who
had gone so far as to say he had been tested and was negative, when
in reality he'd never been tested at all.  He came down with  
pneumocititis (sp?) which in this day, with proper medical 
supervision doesn't happen (pentamidene(sp)).  It has been two
weeks now, we nearly lost him, he is still in the hospital.
My point is after being tested you can take charge, you know
where you stand.  Ignorance is not "bliss" (for any party involved)

--Brian Larsen

>
>Quoting the October 2nd (I think) Newsweek article on the advent
>of using Private Investigators to search up on potential partner's
>sex histories:
>
>    ``I've even gotten the results of ten people's AIDS tests''
>	-- A Private Investigator in Dearborn, Michigan.
>
>Being paranoid does not mean that they aren't out to get you.
>-- 
>Jay Schuster <jay@pcc.COM>	uunet!uvm-gen!banzai!jay, attmail!banzai!jay
>The People's Computer Company	`Revolutionary Programming'