AIDS: 501,310 cases, 311,381 deaths reported as of November 1995 by the United States Centers for Disease Control. As of March 1995 The World Health Organization reported 4.5 million cases, 3 million deaths worldwide. In the United States AIDS is the leading cause of death of Americans aged 25-44. One in every 250 Americans is HIV positive. One in every 92 men aged 25 to 39 is HIV positive. In 1994, 40 to 50,000 new HIV infections occurred in the United States. Of these, one in every two happened to someone 25 years old or younger, one in four to someone under 20.
Fidel Castro: Cuba's communist dictator. A vile creature responsible for the persecution of millions of Cubans. A man whose visions of socialism have failed miserably and who still continued to hang on desperately to his communist ideals even as the great Soviet Union collapsed before his very own eyes.
What do these two wretched things have in common?
Fidel Castro has been the only world leader to effectively limit the spread of the AIDS virus within his own country.
Since the implementation of a mandatory AIDS testing policy in Cuba over a decade ago, more than 12 million tests have been performed on the island population of 11 million. Every Cuban who comes into contact with the country's health care system or who has been out of the country for more than three months is tested for the virus. On June 6 the Miami Herald reported only 1,600 HIV-positive patients and 400 AIDS deaths in Cuba -- less than .01 percent of the population testing positive. All persons infected with HIV are immediately sent into quarantine at one of Cuba's AIDS sanitariums where they are provided with the country's finest medical care, food, shelter, monetary compensation for lost wages, and visitation rights as well as permits to leave the compound on a limited basis.
Not only is one likely to be branded a fascist and cast out of the United States for suggesting the implementation of a similar policy in this country, a land where individual liberties are of supreme value, but an AIDS testing/quarantine policy of this magnitude is simply not feasible in a country of over 250 million people, which already has over 1 million infected persons.
As citizens of the United States we treasure our constitutional rights and any policy which threatens to limit our individual freedom is most unwelcome. However, there have in fact been rare circumstances in this country's history where those individual liberties have been compromised for the welfare of society. The United States lawfully established colonies for lepers and tuberculosis patients, quarantining those infected persons while insuring the health and safety of all other citizens (In fact, we are now facing a frightening outbreak in this country of a deadly new strain of tuberculosis which is antibiotic resistant-- let us see how long it takes until we are forced once again into quarantining tuberculosis patients.)
Indeed, diseases such as leprosy and tuberculosis are communicable through the air and common contact, whereas HIV (until it mutates and becomes airborne) is transmitted only through the exchange of bodily fluids resulting from intimate sexual contact, intravenous drug use, or blood transfusions. However, there are still persons, no matter how educated, who continue to practice unsafe behavior and endanger themselves and the lives of others.
In an ideal world we could easily point our fingers at those practicing unsafe behavior while the rest of us who practice safe behavior could continue to do so and reassure ourselves that we are not at risk. I wish we lived in that ideal world, but we don't, and we cannot continue to accept such ideal models that crumble in reality.
As college students aged 18-24, quickly entering into the 25-44 year-old category where AIDS is the leading cause of death, let us not fool ourselves into believing that we are invincible. Even the most conscientious of us might find ourselves in that one rare circumstance where our intuitions are sacrificed in the heat of the moment. In all likelihood it is those persons who do not know that they are infected or who believe that their partner is clean who will most likely never think twice about slipping up that one time and will have no reason to get tested.
Mandatory AIDS testing will identify those infected persons who are unaware of their condition and who otherwise might not have a clear incentive to be voluntarily tested, in order that they do not continue to spread the virus unknowingly. Mandatory testing is not intended to take the place of continued research and development, but rather, it shall act as a supplement to our current strategy.
Let me again stress that the sole purpose of mandatory testing is to inform unknowing individuals of their condition and in no way is it intended to be used to publicly discriminate against these persons. Not only is quarantining 1 million-plus persons unfeasible, but assuming all infected persons practice safe behavior, it will be unnecessary.
Colleges and universities could act as a small-scale models to test the effectiveness of such a policy before it is implemented on a larger scale.
Does anyone object to the College's requirement that prior to enrollment freshman year all of us must receive mandatory tuberculosis tests as well as Hepatitis B and MMR shots? Certainly not. No one questions this policy or feels that their constitutional rights are being violated. Yet, I can't begin to imagine what would happen if Dartmouth added a mandatory HIV test to its long list of other tests and vaccines it requires to ensure the health of all its students.
The New York Times reported on June 28 that the American Medical Association recently endorsed mandatory testing of all pregnant women and newborns for the AIDS virus. Might Dartmouth do the same for its students?
