>Bill, I'm not saying that anyone "deserves" any diseases - but many contracted HIV via blood transfusions, transplants, etc. I'm not making any value judgments, but certainly the history on AIDS (especially first 5-10 years) is very different .
>
>Those who contracted HIV via transfusions include children. That is very rare with STDs.

Of course.
I'm not saying that people who died from AIDS are worse than people who died from other diseases...
but why are they "heroes?"

Lots of people contract and die from pneumonia while in the hospital.
Why aren't they heroes?