Tell me this doesn't happen in beautiful Sydney

[mjm078]

I read this article and was horrified and then did a search on google and there is a whole whikapedia thing on it!

please tell me "bug chasers" and "conversion parties" do not happen in my beautful city.....

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=114506

it is so sad to think people would chuck everything they have away on such a dreadful thing. To me it is giving up before you even have ago.

[Tim D]

I've heard of the idea behing "bug chasing" before, but it's always been in a really mythical kind of way.

I do remember when Rolling Stone in the US (and here in Aus) do a huge feature story on it in 2003, bringing it into the public consciousness and it caused a huge uproar and controversy in the US at the time.

The original story Rolling Stone story is here: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5939950/bug_chasers

And then part of the controversy (is the story fact or fiction?) is here:
http://www.thebody.com/asp/mayjun03/lazarus.html

A couple of years on and they still both make riveting reading. As to whether it happens here in Sydney, I'm still none the wiser..

[jackie87]

Coburg is in Melbourne, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happened here, you'd get the same along with people who deliberately overdose or slam their fingers in car doors

[libby]

quite a disturbing idea - but intersting to see how thoroughly it got discredited after its publication. you hear horror stories (i read about a south american guy who had infected about 100 people - it made me feel ill) - let's hope this is very much a rare situation