|
|
Article / Health / General ( Health ) | Post Comments |
AIDS and the Morality Issue |
|
By : Dr. Vinod Nikhra M.D. , Delhi, India 14.3.2009 1 Comments Phone:981874937 Mail Now | |
2361, Hudson Line, Kingsway Camp, DELHI - 110009 INDIA | |
who breached the moral code and are deviants, and are treated
similarly if not worse. The rest of the groups are those involved
innocently and are subject of sympathy but because of potential to
transmit the disease, which is so far, untreatable, avoided by the
society amounting to hate.
Thus, morality issue complicates the scientific understanding and
dealing of AIDS patients by the public and medical workers in many
ways. It clouds the public mind, and a clear understanding of the
disease process and thus education is denied. The patients are not
sufferers but sinners, directly or indirectly, cut off from the mainstream
of the society and live on its fringes, and are treated with ridicule and
avoided as untouchables.
The Role Of People’s Organizations The basic hypothesis is that if the morality issue in relation to AIDS can be diluted or sidelined from the public mind, a clearer understanding of the disease and more effective education can be possible. This will have at least two implications: one, it will be helpful at the primary as well the secondary levels of prevention; and secondly, a more humane treatment socially and medically can be met out to the AIDS patients. Here, the role of people’s organizations is important. They can help in spreading a healthy awareness of human sexuality and shaping the public attitude towards the disease and its reorientation for better understanding and awareness, and more efficient prevention as well as treatment. They can work in following ways: Fig.3: The Role of People’s Organizations
This is an uphill task. In a natural course as the number of AIDS patients is on increase, the acute public reaction will subside. An AIDS patient need not be isolated. He should be rehabilitated within his family and in his job, of course taking needful precautions. The aim is to break the chains of transmission by putting barriers, not to outcast the patients. All HIV +ve and AIDS patients should be regularly followed up, and helped in getting treatment and properly rehabilitated. Efforts by people’s organizations in this regard should come.
The people’s organizations can act as nodal points for giving support to the HIV+ persons and AIDS patients in various ways. They should encourage the patients to come out with problems and help in solving them. Acceptance by the family and community, occupational rehabilitation, and follow up and treatment are such problems and can be solved by drawing scientific programs and projects by people’s organizations with help of community and government. |
|
Comments |
||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||