Drag queen wears clothes coated in HIV blood to festival.

With HIV blood there's a huge difference between technicalities, and what studies have actually shown to be effective routes of transmission.
www.aidsmap.com...

Under normal, non-clinical conditions, like a cut or wound HIV hasn't been found to stay alive in sufficient quantities to be infectious, and even then it would require direct contact with another wound or fissure.
It would be a freak accident, even to find transmission in contact sports.
Although needle-stick injuries still happen to medical staff (who go on immediate post-exposure treatment these days), I haven't seen proof of one case where the virus was spread via blood spillage in accidents and so forth since the 1990s.
And SA still has a widely studied long-term HIV epidemic.
The routes of transmission are unprotected anal and vaginal sex.
And it's mostly people who don't know their own HIV-status and simply assume they're negative.
Some sites even argue oral sex is so low risk that the focus should only be on the first two routes (although I don't entirely agree).

Then nowadays, it also depends on whether you are on treatment.
Since I started ARVs this year my virus is undetectable.
That means I'm unlikely to be infectious.
But that still doesn't mean I would spray my blood around, or have unprotected sex, or not disclose to a partner.

In SA we had a Treatment Action Campaign activist who was covered in blood at the opening of Parliament, and he was protesting the HIV denialism and indifference of the government to the exploding epidemic in the 1990s.
And the stigma back then was so strong that people who disclosed could be murdered (like Gugu Dlamini).
en.wikipedia.org...
However it later turned out to be red dye.

Look, once you got dried blood in a book or on a tiara there is no risk of infection.

A much bigger risk is people in high risk communities who don't know their status, don't get regularly tested, don't practice safe sex or no-risk activity (like mutual masturbation), explore options like Truvada and still think they're safe and stigmatize openly HIV-poz people and leave the sole responsibility for there health in the hands of others.
That's how the virus spreads.
Everyone should be proactive.

I can't speak for the gay community in Ireland.
In SA awareness is very strong these days, although especially young women are still at a high risk of infection (it's numerically a mainly heterosexual virus here).
At least to me such antics are redundant and tasteless (re-stigmatizing at worst).
But infection rates in some communities are skyrocketing again since the 1990s, and the availability of treatment has made people complacent of the risks and side-effects.
And treatments can eventually fail, and people are still dying of AIDS (even in Western countries), just the media doesn't show them any more.

If a tiara scares you, maybe think about what you did last night.
Was it safe?
Humans are filled with blood.
You create fissures and skin-on-skin contact through unprotected sex and you are at risk.
Much more so than this.
I get the shock treatment message, but I still hope it turns it was just dye.

a reply to: Phage

It has been going on for a while because people got condom fatigue.

www.sfgate.com...

It died down but apparently it has started up again in some countries

Sex roulette parties where one person is secretly HIV+ and nobody is allowed to use condoms are on the rise, warn doctors

Parties usually attended by gay men who enjoy the 'thrill' of not knowing
Attendees often take anti-viral drugs to reduce the risk of transmission
One Spanish doctor said people are starting to lose respect for HIV


Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...< br /> Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

It’s the ultimate in extreme sex – parties where one person secretly has HIV, and everyone has unprotected sex without knowing who it is. Doctors in Barcelona have claimed that ‘sex roulette’ parties taking place, usually among gay men – and it echoes previous reports of such parties among wealthy people in Serbia. The ‘thrill’ comes from knowing you might be infected, people who claim to have attended such parties say. Dr Josep Mallolas of Hospital Clinic Barcelona says that the parties are a sign that people have ‘lost respect’ for HIV, in a report in el Periodico. Mallolas says, ‘There is everything: sex roulette parties, or sex parties you can only attend if you already have HIV.’ Read more: metro.co.uk...

Would have been a great day for those PETA folks, could have broke out all the dogs in the pound that day. what an EVENT that would have been....think that tranny could have out ran all them dogs?

Even with good intentions/lots of explaining, I don't see how parading HIV blood tainted objects invites understanding and caring??? Just as disgusting as parading a turd around imo.

What exactly was the intent? Was it to entertain/shock or a sincere effort to educate? I'd say it was more about attention/entertainment. The delivery's far too sensational to reach those needing the message most. They're a skittish bunch why scare them off with such a disgusting symbol?

A more gentle approach would probably serve everyone better, so I have to wonder if reaching out/education was the true intent? It comes off as an opportunity to poke fun at ignorance when it reared its ugly head and that's about it. A bunch of like minded people having fun/preaching to the choir while turning off everyone else accomplished what exactly?

Imo the display wasn't a sincere desire to educate, not buying it. At best it was a form of shock entertainment. Nothing wrong with that but trying to pass it off as a learning tool is a total fail imo.

The Facts About HIV and Barebacking
Understanding the Causes and Motivations for Unprotected Sexual Intercourse

By Dennis Sifris, MD and James Myhre Updated July 08, 2016 The term barebacking is commonly used among gay man as slang for unprotected anal intercourse but can also be used to refer to unprotected vaginal sex. The term was popularized in the early- to mid-1990s and received a lot a coverage as reporters latched onto stories about so-called "bug chasers" who actively sought to get infected and "conversion parties" where HIV-negative men had unprotected sex with HIV-positive men. While the firestorm has long since died down, the practice of barebacking continues to be a part of the sexual vernacular, fueled in large part by the availability of more effective HIV drugs and the reduced fear seen in many at-risk populations.

www.verywell.com...

I said look it up because I really didn't want to post this here.

originally posted by: reldra
a reply to: jappee

Well, actually, you can. The virus only lives for so long on a surface and you need skin that is cut or open somehow or a mucous membrane to accept even a live virus.

Deny ignorance.

And glyphophosphate is safe for mammals. Would you drink a nice chilled glass of it with a couple of fluoride ice cubes? I think not. Reanimation can occur in what appear to be dead/static viri as well as mutation caused by uv light. It's people who agree with this ridiculous and dangerous behavior that will eventually doom us as a species.

Cheers - Dave

a reply to: Morningglory

Exactly

It did not educate any one.

Just disgust and piss people off.

There were better ways to go about it.

The fact that this, and other "gay pride" celebrations are allowed to take place shows just how depraved our society has become, all at the hands of the global elite. These horrid festivities would be considered outright shocking in 1955, but today we welcome them as normalities. The globalist cabal push this on us to create a hedonistic society free of dignity and honor.

I support calling this thing a thing.

Go die in a hole somewhere......thing

Keep your disgusting freakish lifestyle to yourself FFS.

a reply to: RainbowPhoenix

I appreciate the facts you are bringing up. I have a couple of comments.

First, I am sorry that your friends have been stigmatized. However, can you blame people for fearing this? If I have a cold and am sneezing, people will try to avoid me, even if I am not contagious. The same is true of HIV.

This is especially important seeing as how there in now a movement telling people not to even tell your partner if you are HIV positive, which is nuts.

whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com... tners/

The other point is, the outrage from people is exactly what this person was trying to achieve. They wanted to be shocking, and hoped that would prove a point. So I have no sympathy. There was a point proven alright, that of how childish these types of actions can be on the left.

Just like reporters that go "rape shopping" to find the most outrageous rape case, or gay couples that go from bakery to bakery until they find one that disagrees with them. These stunts are making people that are other wise reasonable to LGBT or other left wing causes fed up and tired of the drama.

So I hope this drag queen gets all of the vitriol she deserves.

originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: reldra

There is no possible way that it can be said to be "safe" with 100% certainty.

I have enough lab training to know that, even if it's not to the level of our insane ewok...

That was incredibly stupid, and could possibly have been extraordinarily dangerous.

What an idiot.

And yet going for a drive is most probably far more dangerous. Going for a hike is too. We do things on a daily basis which're more dangerous than touching HIV infected blood, especially if it's already dry.

I'll shortly add: convincing the young that they're not invincible is very difficult.

Millennials didn't see the initial spread of the virus and a whole generation of young gay men virtually dying in the 1980's.
Then it spread through-out heterosexual southern Africa, but it was really everywhere.
There were other major high-risk communities - the hemophiliacs, but people everywhere got it.
No country or group was immune.
Sometimes big business, and the blood industry was involved, and they knowingly spread it.
en.wikipedia.org...

But now people have forgotten.
This generation hasn't been exposed to all that imagery.

And the debate about what kind of message to spread about HIV has been there since it was observed in 1981, and isolated in 1983.
Then came the first effective treatment cocktails in 1996 (at least in the West).
It was a long struggle to get them here. Even those preventing mother-to-child transmission.
Death or hope?

But youngsters, I don't think at 16 or even 20 the brain can calculate future risk.
I've spoken to young guys who use steroids, and they don't care if they get cancer or heart-attacks at 30.
To them 30 seems like another planet.
Others use Viagra (yes, straight kids are having careless sex parties), drugs or a whole assortment of unproven chemicals they buy on the Internet.
Heck, they still smoke tobacco (a known carcinogen), and nobody knows whether all the cellular phone and radiation stuff is safe long-term.

So, with all this an HIV prevention message is very difficult.
You can live a long time with the virus, but once it hits you and you didn't diagnose and treat it, it's tickets.

And yes, prevalence may be higher, but it's not only gay people.
Don't deflect it all on another community.
People lie and reinvent their past all the time - especially their sexual history.
Maybe some had too much booze and "spice" and don't even remember.

Don't think it only happens to gay people.
Everyone must be proactive.
Must I really make a list a list of all the heterosexuals who intentionally spread it to each other?
Just three humble cases that spring to my mind immediately.
www.ibtimes.co.uk...
www.iol.co.za...
www.theguardian.com...

But art should be challenging, and one thing I'm glad about: now people on ATS believe HIV exists and causes AIDS.
When I first came here in 2009 it was a nightly struggle, because many believed HIV and AIDS didn't even exist (or that HIV didn't cause AIDS).
That was a true nightmare.
HIV denialists and dissidents calling me all kinds of names (I was supposedly a shill for big pharma).
That misdirected conspiracy theory probably convinced a few people to go off their meds, and it probably killed a few.
Well, at least I tried my best.
But the fact that we're talking about the virus as a real entity (even if we don't agree) gives me hope.

a reply to: crazyewok

what a disgusting and dangrous thing to do. 


I mean what dick head thinks coating themselves in a infectious disease is a safe and responsible thing to do?

Disgusting? Maybe to some. Dangerous? Absolutely not. Dried blood is not a biohazard. Which is an amusing thing to see you cite since you are the one who posted the source material and authored the thread. It might be wise to read your own source material.

The fact that you immediately considered it to be dangerous simply because the blood came from a person infected with HIV is precisely the point this person is trying to get across by wearing it in the first place. HIV is not transmitted through dried blood.

It is transmitted via direct inoculation, either across mucous membranes or by direct introduction of fresh, intact blood cells into the veins by deep puncture or across an open wound. If you had a cut on your hand that was fairly deep and actively bleeding, and an HIV patient stood directly over it, dripping their own contaminated blood into it, you might have a slight chance of contracting the virus...if that person had a high enough viral load; in other words it would have to be an untreated, rampant HIV infection, and if your wound is wide open, actively bleeding to create a portal of infection to your bloodstream.

It sounds really bizarre, like Lady Gaga wearing meat or something, and I personally wouldn't want to wear dried blood in my hair, but it's not one bit dangerous. As long as you're not having unprotected sex or sharing a needle to shoot up drugs with an infected person, you have no reason to worry about contracting HIV. And this is information that has been made widely and thoroughly distributed to the general public now, for several decades.

I'd be more concerned about protecting yourself from influenza, if it were me. That virus isn't simply a bloodborne pathogen. It is transmitted by all vectors, and it's just around the corner, and kills far more people than HIV.

This here on my head? It is a smeared out turd. You know when people say that human fesces can spread diseases? Well I'm here to show people that it is not that bad at all. You can easily walk around with this on your head all day and although people might get physically sick around you, it will not be because you spread any disease.

And since I let it dry it doesn't really smell that bad and the dried up crust has a real nice fracture pattern.

Anyways, hungry? Here's a turd sandwich.

a reply to: crazyewok

An amazing example of a selfish ego maniacal thing indeed. The lengths people go to these days to make a political statement. Awareness could have been equally raised in a different way.

a reply to: Humbaba
Yeah amazing the things people will do to make a point.
en.wikipedia.org...
Gross. Just looking for attention, I guess. Selfish bastards.

a reply to: crazyewok

Can ANY doctor on the planet authorize the mishandling of a BL1 much less guarantee ANY verified infectious material?
THEN get sued for reckless endangerment?
Not to mention ANY verified contact is legally assault.

a reply to: cavtrooper7
Gosh.
You should start up a class action suit.

Are you an attorney? You could score, big time!

a reply to: crazyewok

Question for you.

What is the hazard level of the HIV virus? Compared to say this years version of influenza?