Reply #1 wander's post
Interesting. Thanks for sharing. Given that anyone of us has an average couple's decade's worth of sex in a single month, perhaps we really should be careful base on this paper.
As a scientist, though, I question some of the conclusions. It's tough to judge a meta analysis because it depends upon the studies it's analysing. Some of the underlying studies have insignificant populations, which leads to wild data. In the aggregate, like in a meta analysis, it's misleading. Also, I don't know for sure because I haven't audited each study but I would gather that the underlying research teams could not guarantee or confirm that the HIV-negative partner did not engage in other risky behaviours. Not to be judgemental but in couples where one partner is HIV positive, I would guess that both partners engage in higher risk activities than your average HIV negative couple which could explain the increased infection rate over time.
If you're just speaking about the statistics and the math without the human bavioural distortions, a .0004 percent chance of infection per incident of vaginal intercourse is .0004 each time. It doesn't accumulate. Each instance has its own odds. Like playing the lottery. You don't increase your chance of winning by buying 5 tickets. Each ticket has the same odds of winning--163,472,874:1 or something in that neighbourhood.
Anyway, I think HIV is the least of our worries because there are much more efficient STIs that we can catch and which can make one pretty unhappy. Condoms are just a requirement. Full stop.
Play safe bros.
[ Last edited by biardker at 28-5-2015 00:18 ] | |
