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HEALTH, WEALTH AND HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVITY
                               BY JOHN SHEA, M.D.

The World AIDS Conference of Vancouver in July this year
revealed a mass of information not easily digested. Two features
of great importance are how AIDS will affect the future health of
our society and, secondly, how it will affect our ability to sustain
the cost of AIDS. The Royal Bank's chief economist, John
McCallum, at an economic forum of the Conference, revealed
that AIDS is costing Canada $10 billion annually. This will rise
to $38 billion within 15 years, he said. McCallum'sfigures take
no account of direct non-medical costs such as social assistance
and cost of care provided by friends and relatives (Ottawa
Citizen, July 11, 1996).
Catholic Insight's medical contributor, John Shea, M.D.,
has researched the consequence of AIDS on society's health and
wealth on a strictlyfactual basis. The following are the results.



Just before Christmas, 1995, The Moment, a newsletter pub-
lished by the Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice, and
co-published by the Ontario English Catholic Teachers'
Association (OECTA), devoted its entire issue to the accep-
tance of the "gay lifestyle" (see C.I. March 1996, p. 12). At the
same time they claimed not to promote that lifestyle.
On Canada Day, the mayor of Toronto, Barbara Hall, con-
gratulated a large gathering of homosexuals and lesbians
because they had, according to her, contributed to the health and
the economy of Toronto.
On May 7, 1996, Dr. Grant Hill (Reform MP, Macleod)
claimed in the Canadian Parliament that the gay lifestyle is
unhealthy. On May 10, 1996, the Department of Public Affairs of
the Canadian Medical Association put out a public statement
that there was no scientific evidence to back
such a claim. This raises two questions: is
homosexual activity healthy and does it con-
tribute to the economy?



Health Facts 

1.     Health Canada reported March 31, 1996,
that among adult males 79.6 per cent of
AIDS patients were men who had sex with
men, and 4.6 per cent were men who had sex
with men and who also used injected drugs.



2.     The World Health Organization reported
     on July 6, 1996, that:
     a)1,000,000 children have AIDS.
     h)3,000,000 people got AIDS last year.
     c)1,300,000 died of AIDS in 1995.


3.     One out of a thousand Americans is now infected with
HIV. I This is 0. I per cent of the adult population. Half the popu-
lation is male and 2.8 per cent of all males are homosexual;
therefore, 1.4 per cent of the adult population are homosexual
males. This is 30 per cent of all AIDS cases. The chance of a ran-
domly selected heterosexual man or woman being infected with
AIDS is approximately 0.07 per cent .2
Epidemiologists estimate that 30 per cent of all 20-year-old
homosexual males will be HIV positive or dead by the time they
are 30 years old.' This means that the incidence of AIDS among
20- to-30-year-old homosexual men is roughly 430 times greater
than among the heterosexual population at large (calculated by
dividing 30 per cent by 0.078 per cent).



4. In large communities such as New York City, homosexual
men are presently about half of all reported cases of infectious


5.     Chicago Department of Health studies show that of the
homosexual males studied, 13.6 per cent had gonorrhoea of the
urethra, 3-5 per cent gonorrhoea of the mouth and pharynx, and
9- 10 per cent gonorrhoea of the anus or rectum. This incidence is
substantially greater than in the heterosexual population.-'



6.     Gay Bowel Syndrome: The organisms which cause this
syndrome are the amoeba, shigella, salmonella, giardia, campy-
lobacter, cryptospiridium and cytomegalovirus. The symptoms
are various combinations of vomiting, abdominal cramps, diar-
rhoea (sometimes bloody), and dehydration. The amoeba can
cause abscess of the liver, which could cause death.



7.     Hepatitis A and B (H.A. and H.B.): viral hepatitis ranks
fourth in annual number of cases of communicable diseases in
the U.S.A. The U.S. Center for Disease Control in 1991 reported
that in Denver 29 per cent of H.A. occurred in homosexual men,
New York, 60 per cent, San Francisco, 50 per
cent and Toronto, 40 per cent. It is known
that one to two per cent of H.B. cases die of
acute liver failure, and 0.5 per cent develop
chronic active hepatitis, which often leads to
liver failure or cancer of the liver.



8.     Opportunistic disease-conse-
quences of AIDS due to lowered resistance
to infection and malignancy:
     a)     Kaposi cell sarcoma, frequently
acquired by AIDS patients..... many die
within two years of complicating infections,
toxoplasmosis, cytomegalovirus infection,
or bacterial sepsis. This sarcoma used to be arare disease.
h)     Fungus infection (candidiasis) of throat and esopha-
gus-may disseminate throughout the body via the bloodstream
     c)Cryptococcal meningitis and pneumonia.
     d)Tuberculosis.  Increasingly these cases are caused by bac-
teria which are resistant to all drug therapy. There is a significant
rise in the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis. TB is highly
contagious and is spread easily via droplets in the air (e.g. by
coughing).
e)     Cytomegalovirus, which may cause pneumonia, hepati-
tis, infectious mononucleosis, retinitis and gastrointestinal
bleeding.
     f)Pneumocystis carinii, which causes pneumonia.
Commonin AIDS patients, with a 50 per cent mortality.
     g)Toxoplasmosis infection of brain, which causes meningi-
tis andencephalitis.
     h)Cryptospiridium, which causes diarrhoea and vomiting.
     i)Herpes simplex, which involves skin, mucus membranes,
genitals and the brain.

HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVITY

i) Primary lymphoma (cancer) of the brain and nervous system.

9.     Dementia-this occurs early in HIV infection; it may be the
earliest and at times the only evidence of it.6 HIV may enter the
nervous system early in the course of the infection .7 Dementia is
common in AIDS patients." Its symptoms include agitation, irri-
tability, insomnia, difficulty in beaming and recall, apathy, indo-
lence, lack of emotional participation concerning one's own
destiny, and decreased verbal fluency.

10.     Three thousand new cases of HIV occur each year in
Canada. There have been 13,300 AIDS patients in Canada
reported to date. In the world, 22,000,000 men, women and chil-
dren are HIV positive. This is predicted to rise to 40 to 70 mil-
lion by the year 2,000. There are 85,000 new HIV positives a
day (more than 1,000 are children). There are 750 new HIV pos-
itives in South Africa; 20 per cent of all babies there are positive.
In some U.S. cities, one in ten "gay" men under age 25 are
already infected, and blacks have an
infection rate more than twice that of
whites. One study found that gay men
under age thirty have, on average,
three partners every two months. Half
of the doctors asked in California
have ordered narcotics to assist
euthanasia in AIDS patients who
requested it.
     According to a McGill
University study, the risk to health
care workers has not been adequately
surveyed. These workers, especially
nurses, are exposed to contaminated
body fluids. In ten years, 571 expo-
sures to HIV in Canada have been reported, but a research team
led by Pierre Robillard recorded 40 in a 6-month pilot project
involving 14 hospitals. An article in the July 16, 1996 Globe
reported: "According to the official government registry, . . .
three of Canada's doctors, nurses, orderlies and medical labora-
tory staff have been infected on the job" with HIV. It also noted
that studies conducted in Canada and abroad put the estimated
risk of accidental exposure at one in 300 cases.

Wealth facts

The second question: Does HIV/AIDS contribute to the
economy?

Toronto Mayor Barbara Hall obviously thinks that it does.
Homosexual men who have no wives or children to support have
more disposable income for goods and services, and this proba-
bly increases the cash flow in certain areas of the economy in
Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. However, certain facts must
be remembered. This cash flow disappears usually in about ten
years. The median age of onset of HIV infection is 23 years. Of
those who become HIV positive at age twenty, all will either
have AIDS or be dead by age thirty.
Our pension plans depend on the contribution of workers.
When pension plans first started, the average age at death was
63, and pensions started at 65. There were twelve workers to
support each pensioner, now there are four for each pensioner,
and in a few years there will be only three. Our birth rate is not
enough to keep up with the death rates, despite immigration. The
death of so many of our young from AIDS will further endanger
our pension plans.

"AIDS strikes our stock of human capital just as surely as it
strikes at the immune system."9 A conservative estimate of what
an infected person might eam in a lifetime is about $500,000.

The cost of AIDS:

Year AIDS Cases Direct Medical Cost Total Capital Cost

	1995	16,000	$2,000,000,000	$8,000,000,000
	2000	30,000	$3,000,000,000	$15,000,000,000
	2010	60,000	$6,000,000,000	$30,000,000,000


Source: Royal Bank of Canada



AIDS obviously deprives the economy of both eaming and
spending power. Its medical costs are approximately $100,000
per AIDS case.

     Let us return to our two previous questions, regarding the
health and wealth of our country. Are
the statements of the Canadian
Medical Association, the Jesuit
Centre, the Ontario English Catholic
Teachers' Association, and the mayor
of Toronto factual? Our nation's
health, wealth, and spiritual welfare
depend upon how accurately we
answer these questions and what
action results from our answers.

References:
1. R. T. Michael et al., Se-lc in America: A
Definitive Study (Boston: Little, Brownand Co., 1994), p. 134.

2.     J. Satinover, M.D., Homosexuality and the Politi(.s of Ti-iith,
Baker
books, 1996, p. 57.

3.     W. Odets, in a report to the American Association of Physicians
for
Human Rights. Cited by E. L. Goldman, "Psychological Factors gener-
ate HIV resurgence in young gay men." Clinical P,@ychiati-y Neil,s,
October 1994, p. 5.

4.Se-ijiiailly Ti-ansmitted Diseases in Homosexual Men, edited by
David
G.Ostrow, Plenum Medical Book Co., 1983, p. 39.
5.Ibid., p. 7 1.

6.B. A. Navia, R. W. Price, "The Acquired Immunodeficiency
Complex as a Presenting or Sole Manifestation of HIV Infection,"
Ai-(.hi@,es of Neut-ology, 1987, Jan. 44 (1): pp. 65-69.
7. D. H. Gabuzda, M. S. Hirsch, "Neurologic Manifestation of
Iiifection with HIV," Annals of Internal Medicine, 1987, Sept. 107
(3):
pp. 383-91.

8.M. R. Lee et al.  Science, 1987.  Aug. 28, 237 (4818): pp. 1047-51.
9.John McCallum, Chief Economist, Royal Bank of Canada, The
Globe and Mail, July 11, 1996.