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AIDS: Legal and Policy Implications of the Application of Traditional Disease Control Measures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2021

William J. Curran ,
Mary E. Clark  and
Larry Gostin
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Extract

Public health is fundamentally about the values of community, the shared interests in life, health, and security. How the community perceives disease is not solely an issue of medical knowledge, but a function of the interrelated economic, social, and moral beliefs of the society. Our response to particular diseases will be colored to some extent by our image of the individuals or groups most directly affected by that disease.

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) clearly poses a considerable threat to public health. The disease is thus far medically uncontrollable, and always fatal. The grim prognosis for persons with AIDS has intensified the urgency of developing a program to control and prevent the spread of the syndrome.

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Article
Information
Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 15 , Issue 1-2 , Summer 1987 , pp. 27 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1987

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