Richard.Dewald@p0.f70.n382.z1.fidonet.org (Richard Dewald) (01/27/91)
>It's not the wearing of masks, gowns or goggles that bothers me. > It's the fact that health care workers didn't think it was >worthwhile do so during the ten or so years prior to the AIDS >Health Crisis ... and SINCE the Health Crisis have employed >these very important protections far more concienciously when >in contact with "HIV-suspect" patients than with others. Lack of Universal Precautions goes back further than ten years before AIDS, but that's a minor point. When you see a patient that is fat, female, fortyish, fatigued, flatulent, and fair (complexion), you think gall bladder disease. If you see a patient that is black, you suspect hypertension. If that black patient is short of breath and vomiting, you think sickle cell anemia. If the patient is hispanic and obese, you think diabetes. If you see an effeminate man, or anyone with multiple needle marks, you think AIDS. Yes, it is natural to be more vigilant about universal precautions in that situation. Not because you don't want to touch the patient because he or she is socially unacceptable, but because you don't want to die. > And, of course, there is the little matter of calling the >goggles "AIDS Shades" ... I didn't make that one up, myself, >you know -- that's a little bit of current hospital slang. >And it's very cute and euphonious. And it reenforces the >anti-PWA mythology every time someone says it, or sees ocular >protection devices in use. I'd love to hear what this social critic's view of the "anti-PWA mythology" really is. But how much better it is for his (or her's, the name is a fake) purposes to let it go unspoken. "AIDS-shades" is cute and euphonious, that's about the extent of it. Every time I don the gear to attend a delivery I am reminded that it is AIDS that brought all this about. Not everyone uses the slang and I don't use it in every situation. It is part of the generally healthy adaptation to a stressful situation. Humor is important. let's not let it get lost because of hypersensitive axe-grinders. Richard DeWald SN -- Uucp: ...{gatech,ames,rutgers}!ncar!asuvax!stjhmc!382!70.0!Richard.Dewald Internet: Richard.Dewald@p0.f70.n382.z1.fidonet.org