Position paper on AIDS/HIV infection. Pennsylvania Public Health Association.
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Should women of childbearing age be screened for the presence of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus? If infected, should they be instructed not to become pregnant or not to bear children? Should pregnant women and their offspring be included in research protocols that explore ways to prevent or treat perinatally acquired HIV disease? This article examines ethical controversies related to HIV screening, counseling, and research and suggests that resolutions may come from achieving greater clarity about the ultimate goals of obstetric and gynecologic care.
Testing for the presence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remains one of the most controversial issues of this decade. Among persons diagnosed to be HIV positive, social ostracism and exaggerated atypical behavior are common. The resulting impact on the delivery of healthcare services to the seropositive patient has raised many ethical and professional dilemmas. Discussion of HIV testing and the subsequent effects of seropositivity on the delivery of healthcare will be emphasized.
The lack of an adequate supply of cadaver organs and tissues for transplantation to those in need poses a major challenge to the transplant community and to those responsible for public policy. Historically, Americans have relied upon a combination of altruism and voluntarism to generate an adequate supply of cadaver organs and tissues. The ongoing shortage of organs and tissues has led, in recent years, for calls to abandon these values in favor of either a market system or a system of presumed consent. A survey of the impact of the federal and state laws that require that requests be made to next of kin for organ and tissue donation when a death occurs in a hospital setting shows that inadequate efforts have been made to implement these laws. Before abandoning altruism and voluntarism, health care professionals must insist that zealous efforts in education, enforcement, and coordination be made to implement these new laws and regulations.
Although most babies born to women with HIV will not develop AIDS, many health professionals and segments of the public object when these women will not forgo pregnancy. Such a view fails to consider fully the cultural, political, and socioeconomic contexts in which seropositive women make reproductive choices. HIV infection is only one of many conditions of chronic disease that can be passed from a woman to her fetus, and should not be singled out as a target for coercive policies. Rather, government and society have an obligation to empower women to protect themselves against HIV infection in the first place, and to offer them options for self-esteem and achievement independent of reproduction.
The risks of perinatal HIV transmission do not currently constitute grounds for morally criticizing the reproductive choices of particular infected women. A contextualized assessment of morally relevant factors might in some cases, however, justify judgments of reproductive irresponsibility. Although no women should be subject to any form of coercive pressure when making the decision to initiate or continue pregnancy, a "moral-education" model of nondirective counseling may be appropriate for women carrying HIV. Not even highly desirable, concerted public efforts to foster social justice will eliminate the ethical questions of whether these women should have children and how to counsel them.
In response to the public outcry for mandatory testing for AIDS, this Article explores the major issues concerning the identification of persons with AIDS in society. The Article first studies testing procedures and the purposes behind them to determine if a call for mandatory testing of the general populace would better achieve society's objectives for identifying individuals with AIDS. Concluding that testing should not be required of the population as a whole, the Article then explores whether testing should be required of certain subpopulations which society perceives as likely to have or to spread the disease. In this context, too, the Article concludes that mandatory testing would be unwarranted, and that funds proposed for mandatory testing would be put to better use in education and universal precautions to prevent the further spread of AIDS.
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To provide a basis for international discussion of ethical problems, we studied responses of medical geneticists in 18 countries to questionnaires about 14 clinical cases and five screening situations. Of 1,053 asked to participate, 677 (64%) responded. There was greater than or equal to 75% consensus on five cases involving (1) disclosure of (1) conflicting diagnostic findings, (2) disclosure of ambiguous results, (3) disclosure of controversial interpretations, (4) protection of mother's confidentiality in cases of false paternity, and (5) nondirective counseling about 45,X and XYY syndrome. A majority (51%-60%) would disclose the diagnosis to relatives at risk for Huntington disease or hemophilia A, against the patient's wishes; would disclose which parent carries a translocation causing Down syndrome; and would disclose XY genotype in a female. As reproductive options for patients with disorders not diagnosable prenatally, 84% would discuss artificial insemination by a donor, 66% would discuss in vitro fertilization with donor egg, and 46% would discuss surrogate motherhood. In all, 85% would perform prenatal diagnosis for (or would refer) parents who refuse abortion, 75% for maternal anxiety, and 42% for selection of fetal sex. Screening questions showed that 72% believed that workplace screening should be voluntary and that results should be confidential.
Several studies have concluded that many physicians may harbor fearful and prejudicial attitudes toward AIDS patients and may lack the skills necessary to respond to the growing number of patients with AIDS. The authors surveyed 73 preclinical medical students at Eastern Virginia Medical School of the Medical College of Hampton Roads concerning their knowledge of and attitudes about AIDS, before and after a 6-hour training workshop. The same survey was completed by 49 students who did not participate in the workshop. Significant knowledge gains were recorded by first-year participating students and for all participants as a group. Neither group of students revealed discriminatory attitudes toward AIDS patients. The use of voluntary training programs to teach medical students about AIDS and the responsibilities of providing care to AIDS patients may be an effective method for educators.
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A survey on mass screening was sent to 1,053 medical geneticists in 18 nations, of whom 677 responded. Three theoretical screening situations were proposed, screening in the workplace for genetic susceptibility to work-related disease, carrier screening for cystic fibrosis, and presymptomatic testing for Huntington disease. Of the respondents, 72 percent thought screening in the workplace should be voluntary, and 81 percent said employers should have no access without the worker's consent, including 22 percent who believed that employers should have no access at all. There was strong consensus in all but one nation that insurance companies should have no access to test results without the worker's consent, and strong consensus in two countries that they should have no access at all. Most (82 percent) believed that screening for cystic fibrosis should be applied to the entire population, but 18 percent believed that it should be applied primarily to Caucasians. In all, 66 percent of respondents believed that individuals at risk for Huntington disease should be told their test results only if they say that they wish to know, recognizing a "right not to know" whether they will develop the disease in later life. Twelve percent thought that spouses should have access to test results if they asked, and 26 percent thought that spouses should be informed of results even if they did not ask. Geneticists in all nations were vividly aware of the potential damage from third party access to results, especially access by insurance companies. They had little sympathy with insurers' needs to assess actuarially accurate premiums.
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This article is based on a collaborative research study of policy and practice in national community health worker (CHW) programs in developing countries. The study involved a review of the relevant literature, case studies in Botswana, Colombia and Sri Lanka, and an international workshop where the future of such programs was discussed. The findings of this research are discussed under four headings: unrealistic expectations, poor initial planning, problems of sustainability, and the difficulties of maintaining quality. It is clear that existing national community health worker programs have suffered from conceptual and implementation problems. However, given the interest and political will, governments can address these problems by adopting more flexible approaches within their CHW programs, by planning for them within the context of all health sector activities rather than as a separate activity, and by immediately addressing weaknesses in task allocation, training and supervision. CHWs represent an important health resource, whose potential in extending coverage and providing a reasonable level of care to otherwise underserved populations must be fully tapped.
A study was made of the training and performance of village health workers near Lagos, and of the management of the scheme to which they belonged. Among the deficiencies observed were inadequate drug control and poor record-keeping. Nevertheless, the scheme led to a significant extension of primary health care coverage.
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The objectives of the VFPCs training program are to develop the strategy for promotion of sterilization by contraceptive comsumers in the provinces. The program promoted coordination among government and the private sector. The project was planned to cover 12 provinces in Northeastern Thailand. The results indicated that the project had achieved readiness to some degree. Consequently, the significant differences between pre and post tests (p less than 0.01) indicated that the VFPCs had benefited by the training program. For the most part, the objectives of training were achieved.