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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Friday, 27 April 2012
Insane AIDS-TB patients great threat to SA society
05:00 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
Please kill my dad, I am afraid of him‘ – pleaded the terrified small son of the AIDS-infected SA staff sergeant after he’d slit the child’s twelve-year-old brother’s throat…PRETORIA-NORTH MAGISTRATE’S COURT. May 17 2011. An AIDS-infected South African staff sergeant 's eight-year-old son became so terrified after watching his enraged father cut the throat of his 12-year-old brother last week, that he pleaded with the police to ‘please kill my dad because I am afraid of him.’ (source: Gerhard Pretorius, Beeld).
The child's harrowing statement was submitted in the Pretoria North magistrate's court on Monday, May 16 2011 - where the unnamed staff-sergeant, 40, applied for bail after the Soshanguve community where the family lives, had carried out a citizen’s arrest: the out-of-control staff-sergeant flew into such a towering rage when he discovered that his wife had taken out an interdict against him for raping and assaulting her in October, that he had cut his son’s throat. The twelve-year-old died at the scene, in front of his terrified eight-year-old brother and mother. The boy said in his statement that 'the police must please kill my dad because I am scared of him'.
Public prosecutor advocate Eben van Tonder handed in the child's statement during the man's second bail application. Under SA law the family 's identity may not be published. Adv. Van Tonder pointed out that 'it was shockingly inappropriate to even apply for bail in this case, it would not serve the cause of justice to release this man on bail'. The staff-sergeant’s legal counsel, Hlanganani Mushwana said however that his client 'can afford the R3,000 bail'. Magistrate Nico Noeth ruled a week later that he had to remain in custody.
http://afrikaans.news24.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Seun-kyk-toe-hoe-pa-boetie-se-keel-afsny-20110517
Top UNISA psychiatrist warned of AIDS-psychosis in the military ever since 2008…
The above incident illustrates exactly what one of South Africa’s top psychiatrists, Prof Mathsepo Matoane, head of UNISA’s psychiatry department, has been warning about ever since an important but underreported lecture she gave at Saldanha military academy in 2008. Prof Matoane, left, reportedly warned in her lecture that with so many members of the SA military infected with AIDS/TB (40% at that point)( they could pose a threat to State security and to all those around them. She warned that this deadly disease combination causes neurological changes which creates 'dangerous, vengeful and mutinous' behaviour. And combined with military hardware, a lethal combination, she warned.. http://152.111.1.87/argief/berigte/dieburger/2008/10/04/BY/20/BYNews017-001-StoryB-1183.html
87 per 100,000 SA men die in violent incidents:
Prof Matoane's warning is backed up by statistics from the World Health Organisation. These show that 87 men per 100,000 were being killed in homicidal behaviour in South Africa, whereas the global male-homicide rate ranged 13.6 per 100,000 that year.
"In the final stages of AIDS, the disease greatly affects the central nervous system and such an infected soldier's emotional state is one of 'extreme confusion and anger,' she pointed out in her lecture, reported by Beeld’s military correspondent Erika Gibson. AIDS-infected soldiers 'require the assistance and understanding of qualified personnel to avoid possibly fatal consequences for themselves and their comrades," she warned.
HIV-infected soldiers have difficulties fitting into the rigid pattern of any military organisation: finding it difficult to plan, analyse and carry out intelligenc eoperations for his unit… and in the denialist stage they become very self-destructive and rebellious towards their commanders.After the initial diagnoses of HIV-infection, 'sufferers plunge into stages of depression, trauma, anger, fear and frustration. At work even a newly-diagnosed HIV-infected person without any symptoms thus shows weakening concentration abilities, short-term memory loss and mental confusion. HIV-infected soldiers thus have difficulties to fit into the 'rigid and focused pattern of any military organisation's activities,' Prof Matoane said. In a combat-situation this could also mean that AIDS-sufferers don't have the will to fight because of their own fears. And an infected soldier also finds it difficult to plan, analyse and carry out intelligence operations for his unit.
"When sufferers reach the 'denialist stage' they all go through, they also tend to become very self-destructive and rebellious towards their commanders.Their anger outbursts lead to confrontations with commanders. Matoane said it was 'important that the military, as an organisation, is always aware of the psychiatric effects of HIV-AIDS on the behaviour of soldiers. If they are not managed for such behaviour, such soldiers can get out of control, with fatal consequences.' Thus far, excerpts from her lecture have as far as I am aware, only been published in the Afrikaans-language news media. The link has since then, become inoperative.
http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2400971,00.html
Rape-gangs called 'jackrollers' spread and perpetuate the infection
South Africa, with an estimated 14-million AIDS/TB co-infected people, is also listed as the most violent country in the world, together with Colombia and warzones such as Iraq and the Congo. And the epidemic remains unchecked also because of the townships’ rape-gang-culture.
Yet despite these proven facts, the Pretoria High Court ruled that it would be against their human rights to reject any job-applications from HIV-infected recruits. That very year, when Prof Matsoane also issued her warning, 40% (22,000) of the SA soldiers were infected. Now, due to the ANC-regime’s excessive interpretation of the ‘human-rights’ issue surrounding the prevailing AIDS/TB coinfection epidemic – seemingly concerned only with the human rights of infected people, while disregarding the rights of healthy people - nobody knows the infection rates amongst the SA military any longer. Yet by then some 6,1-m people -- primarily amongst the black heterosexual population- were suffering from the combination-epidemic of Extremely-Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis and AIDS.
High absentee levels, death rates in the military due to TB and AIDS:
Prof. Matoane warned during her lecture at Saldanha military academy that HIV-AIDS infection 'creates a tendency amongst the soldiers to mutiny, ignore authority, become very undiscliplined and stay away from work.' This is backed up by the high absentee-rates amongst the SA military and the police.
AIDS affects central nervous system
And, she warned, 'in the last stages of AIDS, such soldiers can have 'very dangerous outbursts of anger' towards their colleagues which combined with easy access to military weapons, could cause fatalities.' AIDS-infected soldiers thus also 'seriously undermine and threaten the unity of military teamwork. “
Suicides, depression, psychosis soaring amongst millions of infected (black SA) patients…
The psychological problems suffered by AIDS-TB infected South Africans are well known to the South African Depression and Anxiety Group, which has been running support clinics (left) since 1995.
Suicides are soaring in SA because depression is one important symptom of HIV-TB co-infected patients. The SADAG uses tools such as ‘Speaking books’ (picture) as important tools to combat the suicide epidemic among illiterate patients.
Self-destructive, vengeful, mutinous mindset
Prof Matoane of UNISA university in South Africa warns that this deadly disease-combination is also causing extremely high levels of aggression among especially the male patients in South Africa.
"The infectedSA Defence Force and the police members are developing an 'exceedingly self-destructive, vengeful, dangerous mindset," she warned. Such personnel often also operate extremely dangerous military and police-material, such as armed helicopters and military field guns - and this is a particularly lethal combination for their colleagues but also for the surrounding community, she warned.
"These AIDS-infected military members are becoming increasingly mutinous, dangerous and self-destructive as more and more soldiers are falling victim to the lethal combination of AIDS, often worsened by coinfection with Tuberculosis."
This problem among South African military personnel is also expected to increase: the Pretoria High Court in 2008, also issued a court order, telling the SA military that it was unconstitutional to refuse to hire any HIV-infected applicants.
This officially decision was made in the same week when Prof Matoane warned in her lecture to the military academy that HIV+TB infected soldiers are a mutinous danger to themselves, their units... and subsequently, also to the rest of the population.
Angry, vengeful, defiant soldiers are a great threat to SA society...
"Their easy access to dangerous military hardware makes them very dangerous," she warned. "The very unstable and dangerous mental condition of such AIDS-infected soldiers were so angry, vengeful and defiant that this made them 'a danger to themselves and their comrades' in life or death military situations... “ Doctors, nurses and health-workers in hospitals countrywide also report that XDR-TB/AIDS co-infected patients are so mutinous and angry that they are constantly coughing all over the medical staff as a form of revenge".
Defiant TB-patients coughing all over health workers:
South African township youths have also turned to the massive supplies of free antiretroviral drugs sold to them by AIDS-patients and health workers to get high on a cheap drug called Whoonga.
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2011/05/17/nurse-in-aids-drug-probe
Although exact statistics are impossible to find, an estimated 40% of all the 55,000 SA military members in 2008 were known to be infected with the AIDS-virus and are also the vast majority are co-infected with drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis -- which are very difficult to cure with main-stream antibiotics used against TB. http://www.citizen.co.za/index/Article/5868
SA military raised objections against hiring HIV-infected recruits but were overruled by ANC-central committee:Shoke argued that the troops 'needed to be mentally and physically fit to perform their duties, which often land them in extreme conditions.' He said that 'deploying any HIV-positive person into a hazardous situation could threaten the person's life and those of his comrades'.
Makoane's warnings were also backed up the public objections raised by genl. Solly Shoke (right). A very high-ranking individual inside the former Umkhonto-We-Sizwe military wing of the African National Congress, and now the chief of the SA Defence force, spoke up publicly and forcefully against the disastrous May 16 2008 Pretoria High Court ruling -- ordered the SA military to stop refusing any applications from AIDS-TB infected citizens because their constitutional rights were being abused.
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article.php?a_id=134595
The exact AIDS-infection rate among the SA military now is sophisticated guess-work. In 2005, the then-defence minister Terror Lekotha publicly admitted to 17% to 23% of SA National Defence Force members being infected with HIV/AIDS. By 2008, this rose to 40%. Since the May 16 2008 Pretoria High Court ruling, these infection rates are no longer published.
http://www.citizen.co.za/index/Article/5868.page
-----------------------------------------
sources:
Prof Matshepo Matsoane, Psychiatry Department chair UNISA
Qualifications: BA(Ed.) (University Venda) BSc(Hons)(Medunsa) MA(Clin.Psy.)(UNP) D Litt et Phil (Unisa)
Tel: 012 429 8256 E-mail: matoamc Fields of Interest: Interplay of culture in human development and psychotherapy. HIV/AIDS training and counselling within a diversity of contexts – culture, socio-economic level, gender and age.
http://www.unisa.ac.za/default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=1309
Erika Gibson: “MIV-POSITIEWE soldate kan ’n geneigdheid hê om te muit en ongedissiplineerd op te tree. In latere stadiums van MIV kan dié soldate woede-uitbarstings toon. Dié optrede kan die doeltreffendheid van die weermag as ’n eenheid bedreig, meen dr. Matshepo Matoane van Unisa.”http://152.111.1.87/argief/berigte/dieburger/2008/10/04/BY/20/BYNews017-001-StoryB-1183.html
Psychosis related to AIDS infections also is a growing problem in the United States
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/265449
Phill Wilson, founder of the Black AIDS Institute said in 2008 that nearly 600,000 African-Americans were infected with HIV-AIDS and up to 30,000 new cases are diagnosed among African-Americans each year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/health/research/30aids.html?ref=research
The AIDS-TB coinfection is just as prevalent among the South African male prison population:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/266405
http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2400971,00.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/health/research/30aids.html?ref=research
$22-m to South African AIDS-treatments in 1994
In 1994, the United States military's European Command (USEUCOM) provided South Africa's ‘newly-reformed military’ with a $2.2million emergency grant for HIV/AIDS prevention, testing and treatment. The US Military also drew up a 'symptom manual' for dealing with HIV-AIDS infected soldiers in Africa. Another $48-billion for fighting AIDS on a global level by the George W Bush administration: more than half of this money alllocated to combat both AIDS and Tuberculosis in African countries. Previous URL link to programme:
http://researchafrica.rti.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.project&p_id=760
NEW-ONSET PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS in HIV-INFECTED PATIENTS
New-onset psychosis in the HIV-infected patient is the development of psychotic symptoms (delusions, hallucinations, disorganised behaviour, negative symptoms or altered form of thought), either acutely or subacutely, in the absence of concurrent substance abuse, opportunistic infections, space-occupying lesions, cognitive impairment or various medications. This is believed to be caused by subcortical neurodegeneration and the direct neurotropic effects of HIV on the central nervous system (CNS), or is a manifestation of HIV-associated encephalopathy in the absence of severe HIV-associated dementia. Some suggest that it is due to an increase in intracellular free calcium. (6) Rates of new-onset psychosis in HIV-positive patients have been reported to range from 0.5% to 15%. (7)
Psychotic symptoms may also occur in the presence of major HIV-related mood disorders. In a Ugandan study in which HIV-negative patients with primary mania and patients with HIV-related secondary mania were compared, the patients with secondary mania were more irritable, aggressive and disruptive and had a higher rate of psychotic symptoms than those with primary mania. (8) Finally, new-onset psychotic symptoms may also occur in the presence of HIV related-cognitive disorders. (9)
Patients with mental illness are at increased risk of being infected with HIV and transmitting the virus:
When a patient presents with psychotic symptoms in the presence of HIV infection it is essential to exclude life-threatening medical causes of the psychotic symptoms. This may be extremely difficult in the agitated, disorganised or violent patient, and antipsychotic medications may need to be instituted before a thorough work-up is completed. Antipsychotic medications are safe and effective in the presence of HIV disease, but treatment modifications may be necessary and conservative dosing strategies may need to be implemented. Antipsychotic medication should always be used at the lowest possible dose for the shortest possible duration.
It is important to remember that patients with mental illness are at an increased risk of being infected with HIV and of transmitting the virus. Prevention strategies, testing and referral of patients with mental illness and HIV/AIDS is vital.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Assessment+and+treatment+of+psychosis+in+people+living+with+HIV%2FAIDS.-a0212585993
Nurse in Aids-drug probe to make illegal drug WHOONGA: http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2011/05/17/nurse-in-aids-drug-probe
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