Transmission of AIDS. The case against casual contagion.

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The inaccurate belief that acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) can be transmitted by casual contact has created panic in the general population and raised political ethical and legal dilemmas. There have been calls for quarantine mass screenings expulsion from the military of all antibody-positive personnel and exclusion of infected children from schools. It is time for members of the medical profession to take a more active role in quelling the hysteria over the casual transmission of AIDS and thwarting attempts to discriminate against persons in the so-called high-risk groups. The AIDS virus is spread sexually by the injection of contaminated blood and vertically from mother to fetus. Other modes of transmission are extremely rare. Those at greatest risk of acquiring the virus are men who are homosexually and bisexually active intravenous drug abusers persons receiving infected blood products intravenously and children born of infect mothers. At intermediate risk are women who engage in heterosexual sex with members of high-risk groups. Groups whose members are highly unlikely to acquire the virus are health care workers caring for AIDS patients and anyone who has casual contact with the AIDS virus (food handlers coworkers schoolchildren and family members). On the basis of these facts the keys to preventing transmission of AIDS are the screening of all donated blood and education to modify risky sexual behavior and intravenous drug abuse.