Tom.Mickus@f440.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Tom Mickus) (09/28/89)
Dr. Day (a woman), is chief of a surgical dept. in a San Francisco
hospital. Due to her perceived threat of receiving AIDs or the HIV virus
while practicing surgery, she has decided to pack it in, and retreat to a
safer working enviroment. She is upset over the way the risk of infection
among medical personnel is downplayed.
Apparently there are some 6 million healthcare workers in the U.S.
So far, 18 are presumed to have been infected while on the job. However
nobody, including the CDC in Atlanta, believe this figure. They had a
spokesman who cited a number in the "several hundreds". The risk of
getting the virus, through such things as needle pricks, etc., is 1 in 200.
This is comparable to the chances of getting the virus while engaging in
anal sex. Sound like good odds?
Apparently Dr. Day doesn't think so. Whether she is right or not
in "giving up", is another matter. She does raise some interesting points
though, and ones that must be addressed and faced up to. For example, she
cites the fact that any incoming patient can be tested to see if they have
any of the prevalent (or once prevalent) infectious diseases, everyone
except for the AIDs or HIV virus. WHY IS THAT?
It seems to me, that politics come into play here. On the one
hand, AIDs is not supposed to be a gay disease, but when it comes to
testing, its seen as if somehow its seen as a discriminatory practice
directed at homosexuals. Yes, there are legitimate fears over such
information being abused, and things such as job discrimination resulting,
however we have to see that as a lesser evil to the one whereby our
healthcare workers may have a death sentence invoked upon them simply
because they weren't alerted to the risks coming from a particular patient
who was infected. Let us not lose sight of what's happening. We are
dealing with a disease with no known cure (and few treatments) which in a
short span of years, causes death. We are also talking about a
virus...which means when we speak of transmission, you can never say such
and such an action with an infected person is _100%_ safe. However,
neither should we act paranoid or irrational in face of this killer, but we
musn't delude ourselves. Facts are facts, and we have to own up to them,
regardless of what kind of impact it may or may have on particular social
groups.
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