Perhaps some of these myths serve as a psychological mechanism for people to cope with the epidemic, or perhaps, in some cases, as a device to lay blame on someone for the epidemic.
|
urban legend...
An urban legend, common in some parts of Africa, claims that having sexual intercourse with a virgin will cure AIDS. Doing so does not cure the infected person. Rather, it exposes the victim to the risk of HIV infection and likely leads to further spread of the disease. This myth has gained considerable notoriety, having been seen at the center of certain recent stories involving sexual abuse and child rape.
French Canadian flight...
A misconception holds that a single person, a French Canadian flight attendant, introduced HIV to North America.
Green Monkeys...
"Green Monkeys" living in Africa caused AIDS (an idea that has been proven false many times but is still considered true)
AIDS is a "gay plague"...
A common myth that originated in the 1980s's is that AIDS is a "gay plague". Variants of this myth include the misconception that only gays can get AIDS, and the incorrect perception that gays brought AIDS to the world, or to North America. During the early 1980's, the disease's disproportionate occurrence within the gay community led some Christian fundamentalists to brand AIDS the "gay plague", a device used by God to show his "displeasure" with homosexual behavior. This view was based upon a traditional Biblical interpretation that homosexual activity is a sin. Conservative religious spokespersons such as Jerry Falwell touched off considerable controversy when they described AIDS as God's way of punishing homosexuals. Opponents argued that, if this were true, hemophilia would be a sin and God would love lesbians (who have a lower incidence of AIDS than either gay men or heterosexuals of either sex).
blood-sucking insects...
There have been reports that blood-sucking insects transmit HIV. However, there is no evidence for this. There is therefore no need to fear catching HIV from a mosquito bite. When mosquitoes bite a person, they don't inject the blood of a previous victim into the person they bite next. Mosquitoes do, however, inject saliva into their victims, which may infect them with diseases such as dengue , malaria , yellow fever or West Nile , but NOT HIV
HIV and oral sex...
HIV and oral sex: in some circles it is commonly believed, incorrectly, that HIV cannot be transmitted orally. While it is agreed that oral sex is a very much lower risk activity than vaginal and anal sex it has been established that HIV can be transmitted through both insertive and receptive oral sex. An insidious danger of this myth is that it results in increased practice of unprotected oral sex. Even if the risk of infection is very small from a single encounter, it increases with frequency of activity. The perpetuation of the "oral sex is safe" myth probably is driven by the fact that people typically find oral sex far less pleasurable with a condom or dental dam, and consequently cognitive bias inclines people to believe it is safe. The perception is also affected by available information which is sometimes unclear: studies have reported different conclusions about the safety of oral sex. Nevertheless, the practice remains widespread, particularly amongst homosexual men, and there have been relatively few proven seroconversions as a result.
sexual intercourse with monkeys...
Some believe that the epidemic was caused when black men had sexual intercourse with monkeys in Africa causing them to start the virus in modern humans . Some even claim it was brought to North America when they were brought over as slaves hundreds of years ago. In fact it is extremely unlikely that the zoonosis (transfer of a disease from one species to another) of HIV occurred through sexual intercourse, and all credible epidemiologists theorize the disease appeared in humans after hunters came into blood-contact with monkeys infected with SIV (the form of HIV that monkeys carry) that they had killed, most likely for food. The first known case of HIV in a human was found in a person who died in the Congo in 1959.
|
