Question

Several current issues have been raised by Mary Mallon’s story, including the possible identification and labeling of individuals as carriers of diseases such as hepatitis and HIV, isolation of chronic carriers and blame and responsibility for the spread of disease.

    Explain which of these issues are important today in the era of re-emergence and emerging diseases such as multiple drug resistant tuberculosis, HIV, swine flu, SARS and hepatitis and what should be done in that area to protect the members of the general public.

Answer 1

The issues such as identifying and labelling the carrier individuals, isolation of chronic carriers and blaming the carriers for the spreading of diseases, such as Hepatitis and HIV have led to the social stigmatization of such carrier individuals. The social stigmatization of carriers has added more woes and sufferings to the carrier individuals. It has become very difficult for such individuals to find jobs, schools to study and bear family. The fear of social boycott has forced some individuals to not come out openly and accept themselves as carriers. This social stigmatization of such individuals has further helped in the spreading of such diseases, as many carriers fake themselves as disease-free individuals due to the fears of social boycott. The lack of awareness among general masses about diseases such as, Hepatitis and HIV is the main reason of social stigmatization of carrier individuals.

The various measures, that need to be taken, in order to prevent the spreading of such diseases among the general masses are;

1) The government should initiate various health programs, aimed at creating awareness about the various life threatening diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis, Swine flu and Tuberculosis. People should be made aware about the actual reasons of spreading of such diseases. For example, HIV is spreaded mainly through unprotected sexual contact and, blood contact. Therefore the labelling and social boycott of HIV carriers is unnecessary, as the disease is not spread through social contact.

2) Various health programs should be initiated for encouraging people to come out for regular medical check ups and tests for these diseases.

3) The carrier individuals should be properly educated about their risks of spreading the diseases, and what precautions they should take in order to avoid the spreading of the disease to other disease-free individuals.