Wikipedia:WikiProject Aids

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Aim

WikiProject Aids aims to significantly improve the pages on Wikipedia about HIV/AIDS and related topics. HIV is the subject of intense scientific research and basic information about HIV and Aids is constantly changing.

Together we can build a comprehensive, detailed, and accessible guide to Aids, HIV, and related topics on Wikipedia.

Goals

• to identify articles with content relatated to Aids
• to identify articles with significant duplication and consider merging
• to identify articles that relate exclusively to Aids and consider whether multiple pages are appropriate
• to identify articles on related topics and review comments about HIV and Aids

Relevant Wikipedia policies

News reports

Wikipedia should not offer first-hand news reports on breaking stories (however, our sister project Wikinews does exactly that). (see Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not).

Verifiability

Fact checking is time consuming, economically costly, and not particularly rewarding. It is unfair to make later editors dig for sources, particularly when the initial content is questionable. Those who write articles likely to be deemed in need of fact checking, for whatever reason, should expect to assist by providing references, ideally when the article is first written. Because of this, it's important to make it easy to verify the accuracy and neutrality of your content. Citing your sources is an important part of this, but not the only factor. Another good rule of thumb is to be specific (and avoid weasel words). For example:

A human rights spokesman said that the incident was part of a wider pattern of violence in the region

This is difficult to verify, because it's hard to know where to start. Many spokespeople may have commented about the incident on many dates and on many occasions, and it's unreasonable to expect someone to check all these statements looking for the one that matches. A better phrasing would be:

Eliza Twisk, of Amnesty International, described the situation in an interview with Channel 4 news on July 8 2000, saying that "This is all part of a growing trend in Europe of violent protest and equally violent response". [1]

This is easy to verify: one could contact Eliza Twisk, or Channel 4, or Amnesty International. As the exact quote is given, rather than a paraphrase, this can be fed into various search engines. Finally, a URL of a transcript is given.

quoted from Wikipedia:Verifiability

It is generally considered that the best Wikipedia articles should consult and cite the best and most reliable references available for the subject. Those may include books or peer reviewed journal articles. quoted from Wikipedia:How to write a great article Sci guy 12:20, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Terminology

Aids or AIDS?

Aids was selected as the project title after reviewing the discussion AIDS or Aids? suggesting that acronyms read as words (Nato, Aids, Unesco) get rendered with an initial capital; ones that cannot (HIV, UN, EU, USA) get rendered in all capitals. There is no danger of confusion with the dictionary word aids, as there is always an initial capital. Excessive use of capitals is more difficult to read.

On balance, AIDS is more widely used and recognised than Aids and is consistent with SARS, PCP, CMV, etc. CDC uses HIV/AIDS as does WHO and UNAIDS. I also note that acquired immune deficiency syndrome and human immunodeficiency virus do not usually have capitals. CD4 cell count appears to be the standard.

The sample article uses AIDS - the question is open for evaluation and discussion.

Person, patient, individual or body?

The sample article uses person or body depending on the context - the question is open for evaluation and discussion.

Gay or homosexual?

According to the Glossary of the Safe Schools Coalition: "Homosexual: Avoid this term; it is clinical, distancing and archaic. Sometimes appropriate in referring to behavior (although same-sex is the preferred adj.). When referring to people, as opposed to behavior, homosexual is considered derogatory and the terms gay and lesbian are preferred, at least in the Northwest."

Antiretroviral medication/treatment/therapy/drugs

Medication appears to be the current preferrred term

List of articles with content relatated to Aids

Articles with significant repetition of information

These articles extensively duplicate information and repeatedly link to each other. A sample article explores how they could be emerged. A notice of the WikiProject Aids has been inserted on the Talk page of these articles.

• AIDS
• AIDS in Africa
• AIDS in the United States
• HIV
• HIV test

If articles repeat at length information given in other articles then I would agree with you, but this does not seem to be the case here. AIDS in Africa relates to the sociological effects of AIDS in Africa and its effect on the economies of African countries, poverty etc. This is completely different from the medical content of the AIDS article. People have written entire books on AIDS in Africa - it should definitely not be merged into one article.

Have you read the HIV test article? It does not repeat any content from HIV, AIDS or [[AIDS in Africa. Suggesting all these articles should be merged is analogous to advocating for the merging of all articles relating to, for example, the Government of the U.S. TreveX 15:14, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Articles relate exclusively to Aids

These articles are essentially sub categories of Aids and may be able to be included in the sample article. A notice of the WikiProject Aids has been inserted on the Talk page of these articles.

• Antiretroviral drug
• HIV blood screening
• HIV vaccine

Articles with information about Aids

These articles are linked from articles in the WikiProject Aids. They contain information relevant to understanding Aids.

• Antibody
• Haemophilia
• Kaposi's sarcoma
• Immune system
• Opportunistic infection
• Protease redirects to Peptidase
• Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia, formerly known as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia
• Polymerase chain reaction
• Retrovirus
• Reverse transcriptase
• Sexually transmitted infection
• T cell
  • Helper T cell acronym: CD4
  • Cytotoxic T cell acronym: CD8

Reference Articles

These articles are linked from articles in the WikiProject Aids. They contain information relevant to people and organisations invloved with Aids.

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acronym: CDC
• Peter Duesberg
• Robert Gallo
• Luc Montagnier
• Kary Mullis
• David Rasnick
• UNAIDS redirects to Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
• World Health Organization acronym: WHO
• XV International AIDS Conference, 2004

Articles with NPOV challenges

Developing a NPOV in these articles has proved a challenge, which may be resolved in the later phases of WikiProject Aids.

• AIDS reappraisal
• Duesberg hypothesis
• Thabo Mbeki
• Safe sex

Sample Aids article

A sample article is in preparation to give other Wikipedians a feel for the project's goals.

There is also a working draft of what the AIDS article could look like

Timeline of AIDS

Significant events are being collected at Timeline of AIDS

Project Template

Place this on every talk page related to aids {{Aids}}

Members

• Sci guy
• JFW | T@lk
• OwenBlacker
• TreveX 15:10, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• Exploding Boy 19:48, Jun 13, 2005 (UTC)