Isolation of AIDS Patients

1. Medical opinion:
Isolation of people carrying contagious and infectious diseases is one of the most basic methods of prevention. To be more specific, the essential aim of isolation is the prevention of an infected individual from passing the disease on to others in the community. Obviously, this would depend on the way the disease itself is transmitted.

AIDS orphans and babies abandoned by HIV-positive mothers who fear they may have passed on the infection to their offspring are a tragic feature of the epidemic almost everywhere. In this photo from Poland, the children are cared for in an orphanage.

In the case of malaria, it is essential to protect people from being stung by malaria-carrying mosquitoes by advising them, for instance, to sleep under protective fish-nets. For diseases spread through food or drink, such as typhoid and cholera, it is essential to prevent food from being contaminated

by faeces or urine, by ensuring that patients use separate lavatory facilities and by washing thoroughly after using the toilet.

For diseases infecting by way of the respiratory system, such as polio and tuberculosis, patients are advised to sleep in the privacy of their room and breathe and sneeze away from others.

Health authorities in many countries no longer resort to total isolation of patients, except in very exceptional cases when the essentials of personal hygiene in the home cannot be guaranteed. In most cases, keeping the patient in a separate room in the same house is usually sufficient to prevent the spread of infection.

In most cases, isolation is necessary for the benefit of the patients themselves. Such patients have weaker immunity and should be protected against infection by other diseases. They are also in need of extra medical care and attention.

In any case, isolation in the above sense would not be necessary for AIDS sufferers and no justification can be found for it, because infection is only possible through sexual intercourse or the transfer of body fluids or from mother to baby.

If Children to be protected from AIDS, it is essential that we start giving them the facts about the virus evenbefore they become sexually active. They must not be allowed to die of ignorance.

Isolation, for infectious desease, should continue for as long as the disease remains in the infectious stage, which for most diseases is for a limited period of time. If it were necessary for AIDS, it would extend for the rest of the patient's life.

2. Religious opinion:

Some general principles of curbing infectious disease are illustrated by the prophet's saying: "if a pestilence abounds in a town then don't enter it if you are outside or get out if you are already inside", and "let not the afflicted contact the healthy' can be stated as follows:

Since modern medical research has shown that the AIDS virus cannot be transmitted in the course of normal daily activity, such as touching, mixing, and kissing, or sharing food and drink utensils, swimming pools and toilets, or by associating with infected people in public places such as schools, mosques, market-places or playgrounds, both religious and medical opinions therefore agree that HIV infected patients should be given the right to a normal daily life.

It is, therefore, true to say that, based on religious and medical evidence, no justification can be found for isolating AIDS sufferers in special hospitals. All that is required is to avoid all the established means of transmitting the virus, such as sexual intercourse, infected blood transfusion and the sharing of contaminated needles or syringes.

In the case of an affected husband or wife, in addition to medication and other preventive measures, a condom must always be used during sexual intercourse. It may be necessary to issue official advice to Muslim pilgrims to Makkah, who are required to shave their heads at some point during the pilgrimage, to simply trim the hair or exclusively use a private razor or shaving tool, since shared use of such instruments could lead to the transfer of blood from infected persons to healthy ones.