HIV/AIDS Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Misconceptions=== {{Main|Misconceptions about HIV/AIDS|Discredited HIV/AIDS origins theories}} There are many [[misconceptions about HIV and AIDS]]. Three misconceptions are that AIDS can spread through casual contact, that [[Virgin cleansing myth|sexual intercourse with a virgin]] will cure AIDS,<ref>{{cite news |title='Virgin cure': Three women killed to 'cure' Aids |url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/513598/virgin-cure-three-women-killed-to-cure-aids/ |access-date=September 14, 2013 |newspaper=[[International Herald Tribune]] |date=February 28, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015000557/http://tribune.com.pk/story/513598/virgin-cure-three-women-killed-to-cure-aids/ |archive-date=October 15, 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Jenny |first=Carole |title=Child Abuse and Neglect: Diagnosis, Treatment and Evidence – Expert Consult |year=2010 |publisher=Elsevier Health Sciences |isbn=978-1-4377-3621-2 |page=187 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BKILM5KWFKwC&pg=PA187 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151127054149/https://books.google.com/books?id=BKILM5KWFKwC&pg=PA187 |archive-date=November 27, 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Klot, Jennifer |author2=Monica Kathina Juma |title=HIV/AIDS, Gender, Human Security and Violence in Southern Africa |publisher=Africa Institute of South Africa |location=Pretoria |year=2011 |page=47 |isbn=978-0-7983-0253-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=du0aR53YsYMC&pg=PA47 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426060547/https://books.google.com/books?id=du0aR53YsYMC&pg=PA47 |archive-date=April 26, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> and that HIV can infect only gay men and drug users.<ref name="WIFANG">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MNsmDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA407|title=Women's Issues for a New Generation: A Social Work Perspective|isbn=978-0190239404|publisher=Oxford University Press|last=Ukockis|first=Gail|date=2016|page=407|access-date=December 10, 2021|archive-date=December 21, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231221043736/https://books.google.com/books?id=MNsmDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA407#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="RASEFSS">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZnpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA87|title=Relationships and Sex Education for Secondary Schools (2020): A Practical Toolkit for Teachers|isbn=978-1913063689|publisher=Critical Publishing|last1=Glazzard|first1=Jonathan|last2=Stones|first2=Samuel|date=2020|page=87|access-date=December 10, 2021|archive-date=December 21, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231221043746/https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZnpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA87#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2014, some among the British public wrongly thought one could get HIV from kissing (16%), sharing a glass (5%), spitting (16%), a public toilet seat (4%), and coughing or sneezing (5%).<ref>{{cite web |title=HIV Public Knowledge and Attitudes 2014 |url=http://www.nat.org.uk/media/Files/PDF%20documents/Mori_2014_report_FINAL.pdf |website=National AIDS Trust |access-date=February 12, 2015 |page=9 |date=November 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150212142740/http://www.nat.org.uk/media/Files/PDF%20documents/Mori_2014_report_FINAL.pdf |archive-date=February 12, 2015 }}</ref> Other misconceptions are that any act of anal intercourse between two uninfected gay men can lead to HIV infection, and that open discussion of HIV and homosexuality in schools will lead to increased rates of AIDS.<ref>{{cite book |last=Blechner |first=MJ |title=Hope and mortality: psychodynamic approaches to AIDS and HIV |publisher=Analytic Press |location=Hillsdale, NJ |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-88163-223-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Kirby DB, Laris BA, Rolleri LA |title=Sex and HIV education programs: their impact on sexual behaviors of young people throughout the world |journal=The Journal of Adolescent Health |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=206–17 |date=March 2007 |pmid=17321420 |doi=10.1016/j.jadohealth.2006.11.143|doi-access=free }}</ref> A small group of individuals continue to dispute the connection between HIV and AIDS,<ref name=Duesberg>{{cite journal |vauthors=Duesberg P |title=HIV is not the cause of AIDS |journal=Science |volume=241 |issue=4865 |pages=514, 517 |date=July 1988 |pmid=3399880 |doi=10.1126/science.3399880 |bibcode=1988Sci...241..514D}}{{cite journal |vauthors=Cohen J |title=The Duesberg phenomenon |journal=Science |volume=266 |issue=5191 |pages=1642–44 |date=December 1994 |pmid=7992043 |doi=10.1126/science.7992043 |url=http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/cohen/266-5191-1642a.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070101111630/http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/cohen/266-5191-1642a.pdf |bibcode=1994Sci...266.1642C |archive-date=January 1, 2007}}</ref> the existence of HIV itself, or the validity of HIV testing and treatment methods.<ref name=Kalichman>{{cite book |last=Kalichman |first=Seth |author-link=Seth Kalichman |title=Denying AIDS: Conspiracy Theories, Pseudoscience, and Human Tragedy |publisher=Copernicus Books ([[Springer Science+Business Media]]) |location=New York |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-387-79475-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/denyingaidsconsp0000kali|url-access=registration }}</ref><ref name=SmithNovella>{{cite journal |vauthors=Smith TC, Novella SP |title=HIV denial in the Internet era |journal=PLOS Medicine |volume=4 |issue=8 |page=e256 |date=August 2007 |pmid=17713982 |pmc=1949841 |doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0040256 |doi-access=free }}</ref> These claims, known as [[AIDS denialism]], have been examined and rejected by the scientific community.<ref name=consensus>{{cite web |author=Various |publisher=[[National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases]] |date=January 14, 2010 |url=https://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/HIVAIDS/Understanding/howHIVCausesAIDS/Pages/HIVcausesAIDS.aspx |title=Resources and Links, HIV-AIDS Connection |access-date=February 22, 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100407225045/http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/HIVAIDS/Understanding/howHIVCausesAIDS/pages/hivcausesaids.aspx |archive-date=April 7, 2010 }}</ref> However, they have had a significant political impact, particularly [[HIV/AIDS denialism in South Africa|in South Africa]], where the government's official embrace of AIDS denialism (1999–2005) was responsible for its ineffective response to that country's AIDS epidemic, and has been blamed for hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths and HIV infections.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Watson J |title=Scientists, activists sue South Africa's AIDS 'denialists' |journal=Nature Medicine |volume=12 |issue=1 |page=6 |date=January 2006 |pmid=16397537 |doi=10.1038/nm0106-6a|s2cid=3502309 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Baleta A |title=S Africa's AIDS activists accuse government of murder |journal=The Lancet |volume=361 |issue=9363 |page=1105 |date=March 2003 |pmid=12672319 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(03)12909-1|s2cid=43699468 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Cohen J |title=South Africa's new enemy |journal=Science |volume=288 |issue=5474 |pages=2168–70 |date=June 2000 |pmid=10896606 |doi=10.1126/science.288.5474.2168|s2cid=2844528 }}</ref> Several discredited [[conspiracy theories]] have held that HIV was created by scientists, either inadvertently or deliberately. [[Operation INFEKTION]] was a worldwide Soviet [[active measures]] operation to spread the claim that the United States had created HIV/AIDS. Surveys show that a significant number of people believed—and continue to believe—in such claims.<ref name="infektion">{{cite web |last=Boghardt |first=Thomas |title=Operation INFEKTION Soviet Bloc Intelligence and Its AIDS Disinformation Campaign |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol53no4/soviet-bloc-intelligence-and-its-aids.html |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |year=2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514230328/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol53no4/soviet-bloc-intelligence-and-its-aids.html |archive-date=May 14, 2011 }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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