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AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome): From Social History to Social Policy

NCJ Number
109867
Journal
Law, Medicine, and Health Care Volume: 14 Issue: 5-6 Dated: (December 1986) Pages: 231-242
Author(s)
A M Brandt
Date Published
1986
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article examines the public response to AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) as a complex interaction of social, cultural, and biological forces, against the background of the social history of venereal disease in the United States.
Abstract
The analogues that AIDS poses to the broader history of sexually transmitted diseases in the United States are striking. These include the pervasive fear of contagion, concerns about casual transmission, the stigmatization of victims, the conflicts between public health and civil liberties, and the search for a vaccine and a cure. How these issues will be resolved as the AIDS epidemic evolves is far from certain. Factors central in the developing public response to AIDS are how social attitudes toward the high-risk groups, homosexuals and drug abusers, will affect the public commitment to research, education, and the medical and social treatment of victims; the voluntariness, use, and confidentiality of testing for the AIDS virus; and the public's willingness to admit previously taboo sexual subjects into the public education of youth. 42 references.