Ethical aspects of the prevention of Hiv infection

Abstract

The author points out that despite a basic agreement on the need for prevention of infection from the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which is responsible for the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), there is a difference of opinion when one has to specify what the prevention should consist of.

The article mentions some facts: 1. AIDS is no longer a disease confined to certain so-called "risky" categories (homosexual, drug addicts), but it has spread further; 2. HIV is a delicate virus, which can only be transmitted through forms of deep contact (sexual relationships, inoculation of infected blood through blood transfusions or the exchange of infected syringes, mother-fetus transmission); 3. as delicate a virus as HIV is at present pandemic, and this is the consequence of widespread sexual promiscuity.

Therefore, the author considers that really effective prevention can only be carried out by overcoming the widespread promiscuous sexual behaviour. Any other solution, including that of using condoms (erroneously proposed as a valid means of avoiding HIV infection), is "pseudo-prevention" and indicates two basic ideas: 1. sexual libertarianim seen as the conquest of freedom and of civilization; 2. the claimed impossibility of people to control their sexuality, despite the fact that they recognize its value.

The article shares that there are two presuppositions at the basis of prevention that is worthy of man: 1. adequate and correct information; 2. education in responsible maturity by the individual. And the preventive strategies have to run on two levels: personal (with the unreplaceable role of educational organisations) and collective.