The purpose of this essay is to suggest that protecting an individual's liberties is just as important as protecting public health and that isolation should not be used as a method of preventing the spr

This program does more harm than good. It forces HIV-positive people to live away from their friends and family in sanitariums and deprives them of their civil liberties. These sanitariums seem to be nothing more than prisons. The people who are forced to live there are called "inmates" and they are kept in with walls and barbed wire. Some of these inmates have compared these sanitariums to concentration camps. The program also robs HIV-positive women of the right to choose because they must abort their babies, whether they want to or not. Also, the systematic screenings are an invasion of privacy. What makes the situation worse is that these people are striped of their liberties and isolated in vain. Recent studies show that the program has not been effective in stopping the epidemic. Instead, it leads people to believe that all the HIV/AIDS-positive people are isolated and they gain a false sense of security, which results in a reverse effect. Due to this sense of security they engage in unprotected sex and thus continue to spread the infection.

Mary Mallon refuses to believe that she is spreading the infectious disease, typhoid fever. She declares that she has never had typhoid in her life. Soper is equally adamant in proving his theory. To do so, he reconstructs Mallon's work history. He finds that in the previous ten years, Mallon had worked as a cook for eight different families. Of the eight, seven families had experienced typhoid outbreaks. He also finds that a total number of twenty-two people have taken ill and one has died.

In thinking about how far the government might take disease control, isolation emerges as a frightening possibility. Nevertheless, some states have actually considered quarantining people with HIV/AIDS. One can argue that this kind of action goes against democracy, against the Constitution, and against the very foundation the United States is built on. Clearly, isolating people deprives individuals of their god giving rights as human beings and as Americans. Isolation robs these individuals of cherished values like: liberty, privacy, freedom of speech, and freedom of choice.

Education is a far more powerful tool in preventing the spread of infectious diseases than isolation ever could be. However, the health system must first become fair, non-discriminatory, and trustworthy, and all citizens, especially those stricken with disease, must perceive it as such. This will lead more and more people to trust in the public health system. This trust then allows the system to effectively educate more people that carry a disease, so they can refrain from activities that put others at risk. Johan Giesecke, an infectious disease specialist, believes that "strong public confidence in a benevolent and non-discriminatory state and health care system is more valuable than repressive legislation" (Leavitt; 245). In the end, everyone benefits from this method of prevention. This method prevents the spread of disease better than isolation ever will. At the same time the rights and liberties of the infected are being protected along with the health of the community.

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Approximate Word count = 2155
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)