Hong Kong's a cool place. At least it was before the Chinese Communists took over. But, thatsa separate issue. Ever been there?
Anyway. Hong Kong is (was) a crowded place. Kinda like Manhattan. Lotta hustle and bustle. Lotta movin' and shakin'.
According to the CIA Fact Book, Hong Kong has a lotta folks: About 7 million (So, it is real similar to Manhattan!)
So, surely, there must be a significant number of AIDS cases, right? Aren't these 7 million folks copulating and procreating? Ain't there a few opium dens somewhere, where a few folks are shooting up needles? Ain't there a continual stream of plane rides to and from England, US and Europe, where folks are coming and going, hither and yon?
Well, hold on to your hats! According to this story, (buried within, of course):
"....the cumulative total of people afflicted by the condition to 2,914 since cases were first recorded in 1985.
Huh? About 3000 cases over 20 years? That's only 150 cases a year. IN A POPULATION OF 7 MILLION.
That's not much. That's lightning strike territory. They don't even mention the number of AIDS deaths over the same period. What -- one thousand or so?
To compare, about 500,000 people each in the US -- EACH YEAR.
Of course, don't mention this to the idiots folks at AMFAR -- to them the sky is always fallin!
July 8, 2004 - Asia is facing an exploding HIV/AIDS epidemic. Until the late 1980s, no Asian country had experienced a major AIDS epidemic, but by the late 1990s, the disease was well established across the region. UNAIDS reports that in 2003, over one million people were newly infected with HIV in Asia and the Pacific, bringing the total number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the region to 7.4 million.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah.
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