As mentioned earlier - loads of friends are wondering just why I am not bothered about the chances of being found HIV+ in three months time. Well, part of it is that I know the maths. At the moment my chances of becoming HIV+ are estimated at greater than 1 in 5,000. At those odds, I'm just as likely to die by electrocution...

 Chances of dying from selected causes (USA) 








               Cause of death                                            Chances





Motor vehicle accident                                                   1 in 100


Homicide                                                                 1 in 300


Fire                                                                     1 in 800


Firearms accident                                                        1 in 2,500


Electrocution                                                            1 in 5,000


Asteroid/comet impact                                                    1 in 20,000


Passenger aircraft crash                                                 1 in 20,000


Flood                                                                    1 in 30,000


Tornado                                                                  1 in 60,000


Venomous bite or sting                                                   1 in 100,000


Fireworks accident                                                       1 in 1 million


Food poisoning by botulism                                               1 in 3 million


Drinking water with EPA limit of tricholoethylene                        1 in 10 million





(From C.R. Chapman & D. Morrison, 1994, Nature 367, 33-40.)

That and, the way my crewmate and I drive our ambulance I'm way more likely to be killed doing that...

The other thing is that there is nothing I can do now to affect the outcome of things - it's in the lap of the Gods.

Side effects are subsiding with Metoclopramide, now I just have a mild nausea and a general feeling of "mildly befuddled".