Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-04T19:51:04.819Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Nucleus of a Public Health Strategy to Combat AIDS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2021

Larry Gostin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Since AIDS was first identified in 1981, its rate of spread among a primarily young and vibrant population has chilled the medical and lay communities. Today, the public response is sober and oriented toward the examination of specific policies that could lessen the impact of the disease. After six years' experience it is now feasible to propose a strategy for combatting AIDS. Consensus around the following policies should form the nucleus of the public health strategy to combat AIDS before the intervention of an effective vaccine or treatment.

Unprotected sexual intercourse and use of contaminated needles are intentional activities. Voluntary changes in behavior to avoid a high risk of transmission is currently the overriding public policy objective. The first line of defense in controlling AIDS, therefore, is to inform and educate individuals about high-risk behavior and about methods of altering behavior to protect against transmission of the infection.

Type
Viewpoint
Information
Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 14 , Issue 5-6 , December 1986 , pp. 226 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

See Cleary, P et al., Health education about AIDS risk, Health Education Quarterly, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Additional recommendations to reduce sexual and drug-abuse related transmission of HTLV-III/LAV, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) 1986, 35:152.Google Scholar
See CDC, Recommendations for assisting in the prevention of perinatal transmission of HTLV-III/LAV and AIDS, MMWR 1985, 34:721.Google Scholar
See Gostin, L., Curran, WJ, Clark, M, The case against compulsory casefinding—testing, screening and reporting, American Journal of Law & Medicine, forthcoming; Gostin, L., Curran, WJ, AIDS screening, confidentiality and the duty to warn, American Journal of Public Health 1987, 77(3): 361.Google Scholar
New York Times, March 3, 1987.Google Scholar
Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, Confronting AIDS: Directions for public health, health care, and research, Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, 1986.Google Scholar
See Shaw, GM et al., HTLV-III infection in brains of children and adults with AIDS encephalopathy, Science 1985, 227:177.Google ScholarPubMed
See Curran, WJ, Gostin, L, Clark, M, Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome: Legal and regulatory policy, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, contract no. 282-86-0032, 1986.Google Scholar
Arline v. School Board of Nassau County, 55 U.S.L.W. 4245 (March 3, 1987). See District 27 Community School Board v. Board of Education of the City of New York, 130 Misc. 2d 398, 502 N.Y.S. 2d 325 (1986); Parmet, W, AIDS and the limits of the antidiscrimination principle, Law, Medicine & Health Care, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Cooper, CJ (Assistant Attorney General), Application of section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act to persons with AIDS, ARC, or infection with the AIDS virus, unpublished memorandum, 1986.Google Scholar
Curran, , Gostin, and Clark, , supra note 8.Google Scholar