Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [hiv-aids]

AIDS is a disease of the human immune system caused by HIV, a virus.

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Do condoms have large enough holes for HIV to pass through?

Some people say that holes in latex are large enough for the AIDS-causing HIV and chlamydia to pass through, so that condoms do not protect against these STDs. Others dispute this statement and consider condoms to be effective in blocking HIV…
alpha-mouse
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Does circumcision reduce HIV risk?

I've seen numerous claims that circumcision reduces HIV risk, both on TV and online. Have there been any studies to verify if circumcision does or doesn't reduce HIV risk in a statistically-significant manner?
luvieere
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Did more gay men die in NYC during the AIDS crisis than US soldiers in Vietnam?

This Tumblr post, which has accumulated over 3,000 notes, claims: During the 1980s, more gay men died in New York City during the AIDS crisis than all recorded deaths of American soldiers in Vietnam. Wikipedia cites US News to say that the…
Phoenix
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Has condom distribution increased the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa?

Related: Do condoms have large enough holes for HIV to pass through? Back in Mar 2009, Pope Benedict XVI visited Africa and stated that condom use was not the answer to Africa's HIV/AIDS problems. MSNBC: Pope: Condoms not the answer in AIDS…
Hendy
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In the USA, is AIDS most prevalent in the gay male population?

Back in the early 1980s, AIDS was originally named Gay-related Immune Deficiency (GRID). Researchers renamed the disease as they became aware of the spread of the disease in other demographics. For the non-USA population that may not be aware of…
user1873
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Is HIV the cause of AIDS?

"If there is evidence that HIV causes AIDS, there should be scientific documents which either singly or collectively demonstrate that fact, at least with a high probability. There is no such document...The HIV theory, the way it is being applied,…
user8150
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Does tetrasilver tetroxide cure AIDS?

I just found a picture that said: Wanna know a Secret? Google for 5676977 That leads to US Patent 5,676,977 which describes using the "diamagnetic semiconducting molecular crystal tetrasilver tetroxide", Ag₄O₄, to cure AIDS. Does this substance…
Jutschge
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Is HIV/AIDS a man-made disease?

There are lots of places that claim this. Is there any good evidence for or against this?
picakhu
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Was "L" placed at the beginning of the LGBT acronym because of the AIDS crisis?

Seen in various LGBT documentation spaces online: This history of the acronym goes back to the last sustained trauma in the LGBT world: the AIDS pandemic of the 1980s and 1990s. ... a more significant and largely unacknowledged support in the care…
Avery
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Were 25% of newly-infected HIV-positive gay men actively seeking infection in 2003?

Rense quotes a 2003 Drudge Report article, that previewed an apparent Rolling Stone magazine article titled "Bug Chasers: The Men Who Secretly Long To Be HIV+." The men who want the virus are called 'bug chasers' [...] "At least twenty-five percent…
myktin
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Are activities in which both people bleed on each other considered "No Risk" for the transmission of HIV?

My friend, who was a HIV care provider, claims explicitly that "no one has ever transmitted HIV through wound to wound contact" and that therefore there is no significant risk to hockey players transmitting HIV in a fight like this, presuming one of…
Anon
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Has HIV ever been isolated?

In particular I am interested with one specific claim made by Jody Wells Memorial Prize. Is his claim true and reasonable? I'll explain what I mean by reasonable latter. The organisers of the Jody Wells Memorial Prize say it hasn't: The rules for…
user4951
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Did an experimental Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) cause the AIDS pandemic?

Aidsorigins.com mentioned in a post that: The oral polio vaccine (OPV) theory of origin of AIDS proposes that an experimental OPV made in a unique manner was administered to nearly one million Africans in the 1957-1960 period, leading to the…
user26068
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Is "House of Numbers" an AIDS denialist film?

The film House of Numbers has had some quite mainstream backers including (for a brief time) an journalist at the New Humanist magazine. In House of Numbers, an AIDS film like no other, the HIV/AIDS story is being rewritten. This is the first…
Richard Stelling
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Do 50% of prostitutes have HIV?

The Prostitution Statistics You Have to Know claims that: 50% of prostitutes throughout the world have contracted the HIV virus (For this statistic it references this BBC news article: The men who sleep with prostitutes) Is this true?
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