Dear Bob,

I don't expect a reply to this email, I just wanted to take a moment to say how wonderful it is that you take the time to answer all the questions posed to you no matter how hmm..umm..unfounded the fears behind them seem to be. I am a person who has several times needlessly worried about getting HIV from various and assorted venues. Having someone take these fears seriously makes the hypochondraic episodes bearable. Also, and this is my final statement, getting HIV out in the open is the only way to beat it. I have had my teen age daughters read the site so they can get a realistic view that HIV is not dirty or something to discriminate against, but it is preventable. Again Thank You and best prayers for your efforts in helping everyone affected with this virus.

Thankfully Negative

Hello Thankfully Negative,

Thanks for your kind comments and bravo for encouraging your teenaged daughters to become knowledgeable about HIV! Half of all new HIV infections in the United States occur in young adults aged 13 to 24! If more parents encouraged HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention for their teenaged kids, that number would plummet. HIV is a completely preventable illness. That the rate of new infections in this country has not declined over the past decade is a sad comment on our current HIV awareness and prevention efforts. These programs have been severely hampered by Dubya's disastrous abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education policy. King George the W (short for Worst President Ever) continues to live in a parallel universe where everything is going fine in the Iraq War, the American economy is strong, the environment is healthy, people don't really need health insurance and horned-up young adults don't have sex. Yeah, you're doing a helluva job Georgie!

Dr. Bob