Which is worse: malaria, HIV/AIDS or trypanosomiasis?

Malaria infects 100m+ a year, and kills 2m a year; HIV/AIDS infects 4-7 mil a year, and kills 3 m a year. While it's true that HIV/AIDS kills 50% more people (3/2=1.5), why don't we hear more about malaria, which infects many more people a year, and kills nearly as many? Keep in mind some malaria is resistant to antibiotics, so it can't be as easy as "AIDS is incurable while malaria is". BTW, don't you love topical DDT applied selectively to kill mosquitoes? Those Greens/Silient Spring types were wrong about DDT after all. Look forward to your reasoned reply.

I also threw in the red herring of Chagas disease and African sleeping sickness (both forms of trypanosomiasis), which are incurable insect born diseases, but not as common: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagas_dise... and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_si...

All our REAL except for 'AIDS'.

In Africa the other diseases are renamed 'AIDS' under the absurd Bangui definition.


Mortalities (non natural) in S.A. remain at the same 2.2% P.A. that they were BEFORE AIDS. Either every other disease in the region vanished overnight or 'AIDS' is simply the old diseases with a new name. You decide.

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In Africa, the continent supposedly being decimated by
HIV, HIV tests are rarely ever done, so there the idea
that all patients with AIDS are infected with HIV is
based entirely on supposition.

At a WHO conference in the Central African Republic in 1985, U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) introduced the "Bangui Definition" of AIDS in Africa.

The CDC officials later explained, "The definition was reached by consensus, based mostly on the delegates' experience in treating AIDS patients. It has proven a useful tool in determining the extent of the AIDS epidemic in Africa, especially in areas where no testing is available.

It's major components were prolonged fevers (for a month or more), weight loss of 10% or greater, and prolonged diarrhea..."(McCormick, 1996). Where AIDS is diagnosed clinically, large numbers of AIDS patients test negative for HIV. As no HIV testing is required in Africa we have no idea how many AIDS cases there are HIV positive (De ####, 1991; Gilks, 1991; Widy-Wirski, 1988).

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Other conditions common in underprivileged and
impoverished communities that are known to cause false
positive results are tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis and leprosy (Burke, 1993; Challakeree, 1993; Johnson, 1998; Kashala, 1994; MacKenzie,1992; Meyer, 1987). In fact, these are the primary health threats in Africa; several million cases of tuberculosis and malaria are reported in Africa each year - more than all the AIDS cases reported in Africa since 1982 (WHO, 1998)*.

AIDS.
my girlfriend has it.
she was raped
]: she's 16

Illness and how it's perceived by any individual is a highly subjective thing. What may be devastating for you may not be for someone else.

i'll would lean more to HIV/AIDS. this disease makes u immunocomprimised so u can get several illness at the same time. So AIDS, I think, is worse

Okay, when you talk about one individual with unlimited resources, then the answer is that HIV/AIDS is worse because it is uncurable.

Then if you talk about public heath, then it depends on the population described. If you're talking about the UK, then the only endemic disease there is HIV - so HIV would be worse.

Now if you're talking about the world in general, then you should really chose the disease that affect the most people. That would be malaria. While malaria is treatable, many people across the world don't have access to appropriate treatment and are still living in endemic areas (so they can get re-infected).

Regarding the answer that HIV/AIDS is a myth, it maked me sad to see some people would prefer to think HIV/AIDS is a conspiracy. I wish they could witness the men and women who die of this disease without ever receiving treatment.