Are taxpayers being scammed by organizations and countries who want money for HIV/AIDS. ?

I get regular alerts about astronomical reported cases of people with HIV/AIDS, including infections and deaths), yet seldom hear anything in mainstream media about the subject. It seems incredulous to me that it is being so ignored if it is true. What is the deal with this?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090113/hl_n...

Think you will be seeing this full report on CNN?

I see the mainstream media airing plenty of stories of white women being abducted and killed, and yet I don't think you fear that from day to day, right?

The media is no gauge for reality. Surely you can appreciate the biases inherent in the way people get their information.

I study infectious diseases. I don't have to rely on the media for my information (and I prefer not to -- the quality of science writing in media venues like CNN, AP and Reuters is crap most of the time). I read the studies that are published in medical and scientific journals. I see the data. The data are compelling.

There really is a crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa. The prevalence of HIV and AIDS there threatens the already-impoverished economy. Mind you, this is a disease that strikes and kills people of working age. Wipe out the workers, wipe out the economy and take the rest of society down into the grave with you. There would be a deficit of factory workers, teachers and farmers. No manufacture. No education. No food!

Why should America give money to help Africa curb the AIDS problem? Because...
1. We can't in good conscience allow another 1.5 million African people die per year without intervening somehow.
2. We trade with Africa. It is in our economic interest to help them develop.

As for the rising number of STD cases in the US, here's my take on it: Parents need to teach their kids what condoms are. If parents would step up to the plate and teach their kids the reality of the birds and bees, we'd never have to get the schools embroiled in controversial sex ed and abstinence-only programs that aren't working. If you already know the program is ineffective, then I'd rather the schools spent the extra hour a week on more math classes. And maybe parents ought to SUPERVISE their kids.

My parents watched me like a hawk when I was in high school, and by golly I've never had chlamydia. There must be something to this whole PARENTING thing.