NEWS: Osbourne Family Member HIV Positive: Kelly in Tears

This is so sad
My heart goes out to the family <3

Here's an article from the AP newswire today about 3 patients in an Italian hospital who were recently given an HIV-positive patient's organs because someone wrote the donor info down wrong. Infected organ donors may be rare these days but this article is current and relative to some of the previous discussion. People can still become infected even when they think they are taking the utmost care to avoid exposure.

Thank you! In my previous post, I had forgotten about other countries and also the risk of needlesticks or used scalpels, glass breaks or whatever in medical situations, which is ironic since I'm in exactly that situation every day and have been for more since 1993.

So, it's well established that there are plenty of ways to contract HIV or AIDS without being stupid or irresponsible, and that despite this the more common scenario is from irresponsibility and/or ignorance.

Oh yeah, add burst or defective condoms to the list.

I think it is entirely appropriate that she "divulged" this at an HIV/AIDS charity event. There is no harm nor fault in showing that it is a personal issue for her. She didn't say who, so there is no violation of confidentiality.

Of course not. But do they have it because someone, at some point, wasn't careful?
It's interesting to think about.

Thanks for your insight. As the article is about the Osborne Family, the inference could be drawn that it either IV drug use or Sex is involved ( I don't think any is a medical professional - do you? - any serve in the military?).

You base your rant on "assumptions" - you're the one who brought up the fact about being "stupid or irresponsible" - I never alluded to this, implied or otherwise. This is sometimes called a guilty conscience.

And, lo, 30 million cases of AIDS is caused by safe behaviour by responsible people. 30 million rapes, NO, 30 million, health professionals, the 3rd world could be so lucky.

You should go support Thabo Embeki and bury your head in the sand.
AIDS is on the rise in western countries due to risky behaviour.

So you advocate risky behaviour? The sharing of needles? Unprotected sex? Through your argument you have given agreement to these statements.

Excellent point. Mosdt likely yes in most cases. Being one of the old fucks here, I can think of a couple ways, but generally, someone was not careful. The wayd to which I refer center around the ignorance (because it was unknown) we had of the disease. Even though I test negative every time year for work and I give blood, I lost my virginity in 1978 when I was dosed unwittingly by my friend's cousin with a large amount of LSD and have no recollection of the actual sex (which really sucked at 13 years old and made me immediately set out to try both sex and acid to see what I missed). At that point, if I'd been boinked by a girl with the then unknown HIV, and started giving blood at 18 years old before the y started testing the donated blood for HIV, my blood, if tainted, could have unknowingly infected someone. Fortunately, once Hep C entered the picture and all blood began being tested more stringently in 1984, this risk is slim, but there ARE such things as false negatives, and it is not completely out of the question to think someone slipped through the cracks and even now could somehow recieve blood thaqt has tested negative.

As slim as that chance is now, at least in non-Third World nations, it is stil possible.

I should add that everyone I know with HIV or AIDS got it either through their indiscretion or that of a parent. But it is in rare clases possible to have gotten it otherwise. And I don't know about other countries. They may not test as thoroughly as we do in the States, and having performed numerous HIV/AIDS tests in my career, even here it is not out of the question.

Bottom line:

It CAN happen to any of us. And anything we can do to help inhibit it is fucking fantastic. I recall all too vividly the first person close to me withering away in months and dying back in 1984. I still get goosebumps and have to choke back the tears thinknog about her.

My heart truly goes out to the Osbournes and anyone who has this enter their lives.

Some 20 years ago, when the "Don't Share Needles, Don't Share Partners" posters were first going up around the San Francisco Bayarrhea, as I was coming in the back door of my home, I overheard a [already known to be rather silly] queen howling in the Living Room:

"How DARE they? They're trying to tell us who our Friends should be! They have No Right to do this!"

I entered the room, and asked what in particular led to the outburst. When informed that it was the above mentioned posters, I was a bit taken aback. After all, the word was well out and about on how HIV spreads, and I didn't think the posters were Really Big News.

I got hir calmed down a bit by pointing out that "they" weren't trying to choose hir friends, only very bluntly reminding people of the well-known risks of irresponsible "friendship."

Things have improved a bit, I hope, but there is still no lack of stupidity and irresponsibility in the world.

What a hard act to follow...imagine having to rev up a crowd after that news...

To everyone who thinks that engaging in high risk behavior is the only way to contract AIDS, you really need to stop and broaden your idea of the world.

My friend's dad cheated on her mother after they had been married for around 20 years, and brought AIDS home to her mother. She was just having sex with the man that she loved and trusted, with no need for birth control because she had tubal ligation.

Is she high risk for engaging in sexual contact with her steady partner of 20+ years?

If my husband and I got tested every year, there is still an entire year where he could cheat on me and bring something home to me. I'm sure it happens quite a bit more than any of you narrow minded people could believe, but the people who get AIDS don't 'deserve' it, which is basically what you are saying.

This thread gave me bad dreams last night. Well, this and the fact that I heard a song from "Rent" on my Sirius last night.

Something about HIV terrifies me. When I was little, I was TERRIFIED of dying. I'm not so worried about it these days - I've accepted the fact that one day, I and everyone I love is going to die.

I've narrowed it down to the fact that I don't want to die from something I've caused myself. No car accidents that were my fault, no organ damage from too much alcohol, no lung cancer from smoking too much...and no HIV from my addiction to sex.

I think it's easier to die knowing that you didn't case your death. I think knowing you contributed to it makes it worse. What do guys think?

That this is a funny quote coming from a girl with a beer in one hand and a cigar in the other!

I keed, I keed...

Hahahaha, yes, you are right - my profile photo isn't a good representation of that attitude.

I only have a cigar once every few months. I pace myself. I have found that by pacing yourself, you can enjoy pretty much any vice with little to no repercussions for years. I'm not like George Peppard from the A-Team with my cigars, so hopefully I won't die from lung cancer.

I pace myself with tobacco, alcohol, just about everything. Some people, unfortuntely, have more addictive personalities, and they find that they have a very difficult time pacing themselves.

3) From unfaithful spouses. EDIT: What DhD said.

What Annika said.

My cousin Eddie died of AIDS about ten years ago. As far as any of us know, he was in neither of the most obvious high-risk groups. Not that that really matters.