From: cup.portal.com!Neon%portal@uunet.UU.NET
Subject: Re: re:dyer on aids
Note: Copyright 1992, Dan R. Greening. Non-commercial reproduction allowed.
Archive-Number: 6081
Organization: unspecified
Date: Sat,  5 Sep 92 01:37:58 PDT

In an article dated 9/2/92 16:58 49/2658 kwald@tinored.cu (Karen Wald )
writes:

>Steve Dyer responded to a Radio Habana Cuba news story about AIDS in
>Cuba, and a forthcoming conference here, rejecting each and every
>statement as a lie or fabrication or cover-up.
>Contrary to his assertion that "no one has any reason to
>believe" the figures on AIDS in Cuba (or, presumably, anything else
>the Cubans have to say), there ARE people who have reason to believe
>it -- the HIV-positive Cubans and Cuban PWAs who live and work in
>these sanitoriums, some of them as doctors, nurses, accountants,
>book-keepers, statisticians, etc. They have no reason to "cover up"
>a state policy that dyer believes is "imprisoning" them, and they
>have first-hand knowledge not only of the numbers involved but the
>benefits: excellent medical care, medicine, food, housing, income
>maintenance, emotional support and longevity. That doesn't mean that
>they necessarily *like* a system which uproots them in order to save
>their lives, but most of them do place *living* on a higher scale
>than the ambiguous "freedom" of pwa's in other countries
>who have no access to medical care, are out of work, living in the
>streets, and can't get the medicines that might keep them alive.
>They simply don't believe you have any freedom at all when you are
>dead.
>
>It would be interesting to know how many people out there think like
>Steve Dyer, or at least have serious doubts, to determine whether it
>is worth asking some of these Cubans with HIV and AIDS to write a
>response to Dyer. You can send your responses -- pro or con -- or
>requests for more information to infosida@tinored.cu, with copies to
>kwald@tinored.cu and if there is enough interest, we will put
>something in the conference.

(The rest deleted to conserve space.)

>AIDS educator and writer
>Havana, Cuba

No, I don't think like Steve Dyer - that everything you say is a lie ,etc.
However, without resorting to accusing you of lying or a cover up, this
"solution" seems more than strange, on the face of it.

Sanatoriums, have been used in this country in the past for TB, which can
be highly contageous, and for mental patients who would present a danger to
themselves or others.  Though individual patients may have been told they
were being sent their for their oun good, the reality is that these
institutions were for the protection of the society as a whole.  There have
been cases in this country where individuals who were HIV+ and who showed
reckless endangerment to others have had their freedom restricted as well.

I fail to see the rational of a choice between freedom and substandard or
no medical care, and internment in a sanatorium in order to recieve that
care along with food and shelter.

Not all of us who are HIV+ and are symptomatic are living "on the streets".
There are many government and private programs and institutions which allow
us to continue to live in our homes by providing the necessary medical
help, personal care, financial assistance and psycological support.

That some PWA's in the USA are homeless and without decent care is a
national shame, especially in a country which consumes such a
disproportionate share of the world's resourses and yet apportions that
wealth so inequitably.

Why are the choices in Cuba internment in a sanatorium or no medical care
and other support?  Is it true that residence in these sanatoriums is not
voluntary?  Sanatoriums usually contain individuals who are not there of
their oun free will.  What dangers to society does the government of Cuba
believe PWA's present?  With the limited resourses available there, how
can the government afford to test everyone?  A very expensive proposition
indeed.

This certainly seems to be a quaranteen.  In order for it to be effective,
patients would have to be detained for life and virturally all infected
persons would have to be found and incarcerated.

This is the kind of policy which has given socialism a bad name.  The only
people in this country advocating internment have been extreme right
wingers, those who tend to blame victims instead of helping them and
people who are irrationally and ignorantly afraid of catching AIDS.

In the US, there were many who at one time thought that this kind of
solution was the answer.  Much of what underlay the rational was homophobia
and ignorance of disease vectors.  Gradually, as the public has been
educated such proposals are no longer routinely made and people know
how to protect themselves without rounding up PWA's and taking away
their freedom.

Does the Cuban government have so little faith in it's people and so
little confidence in their ability to be responsible that it's only
recourse is to confine HIV+ individuals at such great expence in testing
everyone?

Governments which claim to know better how I should live and are so
ready to take freedom away scare me to death.  Our bureaucrates have
the same tendancies but there is a strong and healthy cynicism in the
US as well as many other countries which help to keep the power of
the government in check.

Stalin called himself a "Socialist", but he was no more a socialist in
my mind than Hitler (a National Socialist).  Governments which called
themselves socialist or communist and ran roughshod over human rights
have setback the cause of socialism and social justice mightily.

No, as a PWA, I very much value my freedom to live in my own home and to
go about freely.  I am shamed by our toleration of homelessness and poverty
amoung some in our country, but I see this as a separate issue not to be
cured by some godawful government sanatorium system.  I don't believe
that my freedom extends to putting other's at risk of infection, and that
would be the only sufficient reason to restrict one's freedom.

Tony Bruder - neon@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids