I can hardly wait. This letter is in response to Mrs. H.L. Puckett's letter to the editor, Sunday, March 5. She suggests that tuberculosis and AIDS are similar diseases and must be treated the same by court-ordered segregation.
Tuberculosis is transmitted through the air or through contact with infected surfaces.
Coughing, spitting, talking, and even the breath can transmit tuberculosis. This highly infectious route is the only reason for isolating the persons who will not voluntarily limit their contact with unsuspecting others. HIV can only be spread through direct contact with the virus. Blood, other body fluids and contaminated blood products directly entering the blood stream are the only known ways that HIV can be transmitted. You cannot get HIV from breathing the same air, sitting on the same toilet or touching the same surfaces as an infected person.