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Why are HIV carriers with no symptoms considered criminals, while Ebola carriers with no symptoms are called 'virus-free'?


HIV carriers

(NaturalNews) If Ebola really is as dangerous as the mainstream media continues to claim it is, then why are possible Ebola carriers like nurse Kaci Hickox being treated as "virus-free" while HIV carriers continue to be prosecuted as criminals?

In case you weren't aware, individuals diagnosed as HIV-positive -- that is, people who show signs of HIV antibodies -- can be prosecuted for infecting others with the virus, even if transmission was accidental.

Many an HIV-positive individual has served a prison sentence for allegedly infecting someone else with the virus, even when symptoms weren't present or they weren't even that they had the condition. In some cases, prosecuted individuals said to be HIV-positive may not have actually had the disease in the first place, as the most common testing methods aren't foolproof.

There's been much controversy, in fact, over HIV diagnoses and how these are used to prosecute people who may not be guilty of any actual crimes. Like Ebola, HIV isn't fully understood by the medical profession, and there's still plenty of debate over whether or not it's even a real disease in the way most people think of it.

Ebola appears more unpredictable, deadly than HIV

Ebola has been similarly misconstrued. It has evolved from a disease confined to "the bush," to a disease that could jump continents but is only spread through bodily fluids, and to a potentially airborne killer with an unpredictable infection trajectory.

Both diseases apparently show no symptoms initially, and infected individuals without symptoms can act as carriers infecting others. This much is known about the two diseases, and yet they are treated much differently from one another by the criminal justice system.

As previously stated, HIV carriers have to be extra cautious to avoid even the possibility of spreading infection. But Ebola carriers seem to have free reign to travel freely without consequence, an anomalous paradigm that seems to have no basis in science.

Ebola doctors just as reckless as HIV "criminals"

In the case of nurse Hickox, state officials ordered her to remain under self-quarantine after returning from West Africa, a mandate that she blatantly ignored. The courts tried to block her from going out into public places, but her lawyers ultimately succeeded in having this mandate overruled.

The same is true of Dr. Craig Spencer, who galavanted around New York City just days after returning from the Ebola hot zone. Reports indicate that Dr. Spencer went to the bowling alley, took public transportation and ate at restaurants despite potentially being infected with the hemorrhagic illness.

All of this is despite the fact that Ebola appears to be more infectious than HIV and much more of a public health threat. Since it was first identified back in the 1960s, HIV has yet to show any signs of airborne transmission, which can't be said of Ebola.

"Hickox, Spencer, and anyone else who's been exposed and wants to come into the United States should be quarantined in the country of exposure before being allowed to enter the U.S.," wrote Robert Vickers for The Seattle Times.

"Anything less is inviting public comparisons to Gaetan Dugas, the Canadian flight attendant once identified as the 'patient zero' of HIV in North America. Dugas continued to have unprotected sex even after being diagnosed and after doctors warned him that future liaisons would expose his partners to the deadly virus."

Sources for this article include:

http://apnews.myway.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.propublica.org

http://nypost.com

http://blogs.seattletimes.com

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