Shredder said:
for the most part hiv is a preventable disease, all. there is no getting around that. thats why hiv campaigns focus on prevention. the poor are in fact less in need of docs bc efforts are more likely to be futile--the poor have a way of disobeying orders and not minding their health, or safety even. great docs going to serve the poor is a misallocation of resources, truly.
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it is true that HIV is usually preventable. HOWEVER...we all do things that are bad for us in one way or another...should i be denied antacids because my heartburn is caused by the fatty meal i ate?
and as for the gross, abhorable generalization that somehow the poor are somehow unable/unwilling to act to their own benefit is so social darwinian it's painful to read. i work with these people, and have for years. they're not "disobeying orders" (first off, the idea that somehow doctors are parental figures who should be allowed to give orders, and not partners in developing wellness strategies that work for the individual patient...sheesh), and not purposely not minding their health, it's often a by product of circumstances. they are not dumb, nor not open to change, nor willfully self desructive for the most part. and most are not lazy with a sense of arrogant entitlement. most are embarassed to be where they are, and want things to be different. and it's people like you, who lable and judge and dismiss them that only exacerbate the problem, because the first thing that they need is a sense of empowerment.
shredder...have you ever been even close to homeless? do you even know how hard it is to stay alive, no matter do what you "should" in that situation? have you ever had chronic pain, or narcolepsy, that doctors dismiss because they think you're just a lazy drug seeking bum, so you have to find a way to self-medicate? have had such an awful environment at home that you run away from the abuse only to find yourself abused by johns and your pimp? not be able to afford decent food that's good for you, so you're stuck eating ramen and the like so that you get a vitamin deficiency? i know people well who've been all of those and worse. i've personally been unemployed (but working...i had a master's degree and couldn't find a job in my field, i worked whatever i could to make some money, but it wasn't enough), "medically indigent" and less than a week from having to live in my car while having gallstones. i've been so poor that i ended up malnourished and with early stages of vitamin B definicency. and it sucks. and i know that any of us (well, any of us without trust funds or rich daddys) could end up there. so when i care for that heroin user or that sex worker, i don't see them as "other" to me. or you. just people without the gifts of the tools and circumstances to which we've been priviledged.
ok, ok, sorry, off of soapbox now.
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and, that said, meth use is rampant in rural areas, so don't count on a lack of tweekers and injectors and thus, hiv poz people in the rural areas....
