So far I have rceived half a dozen responses to my enquiry of
05-Jan regarding the nature of AIDS in Africa. I will
acknowledge and (if wanted) summarise these later. However, the
extremely varied nature of the responses so far makes me suppose
and hope that there may be more to come.
So if you have something to say about this question then *please*
do take the trouble to respond to me.
Norman Marsh
==========================================================
On Wed, 5 Jan 2000, Norman Marsh wrote:
>Members of RSS and other readers of allstat may at some
>time have looked at the WWW pages (*) which I publish
>concerned with the poor standard of the reasoning which has
>been applied regarding the widespread and influential belief
>that AIDS is caused by infection by the HIV virus, and
>my suggestion that statisticians in particular should be
>taking a leading role in reviewing the reasoning. These pages
>were last updated on 18-May-99. At the turn of a new year I
>have been considering whether my account may need reviewing.
>
>I note that international news reporting continues to describe
>siuations of millions (sic) of persons suffering/dying from
>AIDS in Zambia and other countries of sub-Saharan Africa.
>This is puzzling when set alongside the situation in the UK
>that AIDS remains confined to specific risk groups, with about
>100 deaths per annum, and with most people in the UK not knowing
>an AIDS sufferer.
>
>There are several reasons for distrusting the huge figures
>reported for the African countries - notably lack of knowledge
>of the reporting conditions along with the situation that
>Immune Deficiency (the 'ID' part of 'AIDS') is characteristic
>of malnutrition and of long-established tropical diseases.
>However, the thought of the amount of suffering involved in so
>many deaths makes me wish to give some more complete account of
>this situation.
>
>I have never visited these parts of the world and do not have any
>trusted personal contacts there. So I here ask if anyone reading
>this message can give me any pointers into ways to assess the
>reliability of these huge reported figures, and of how AIDS or
> HIV status may be established in these places.
>
>Please reply to me directly. I will provide a brief notice
>when my WWW resource gets updated, and a separate summary if
>this is asked for.
>
>Norman Marsh
>
>=============================================================
>('*') http://www.liv.ac.uk/~jw34/epidem_logic/main.html
>=============================================================
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|