After Charlie Sheen revealed he was HIV-positive, I asked myself whether the discourse surrounding HIV had changed. Indeed, the mostly liberal site Tumblr appeared to be much more understanding of the diagnosis than some of the more radical people on FaceBook.
This made me question an age-old debate; should people with HIV be required by law to tell their employers and/or colleagues? In the past, most would probably agree, or even believe those with HIV should not be working at all! But with more knowledge and less stigma of the virus, are people now more willing to work with someone with HIV? And would society be willing to be TREATED by someone with HIV?
As always, I will provide some arguments for and against disclosing a HIV diagnosis but the debate is up to you
ARGUMENTS FOR DISCLOSURE
~ in some professions, such as being a nurse, there's a higher risk of the relatively low risk of catching HIV. some may argue that small risk should be taken seriously and that patients have the right to know their nurse has the virus.
~ disclosing to your employer allows them to understand if you may need time off to recover from any illness or to go to appointments.
ARGUMENTS AGAINST DISCLOSURE
~ if staff have proper first aid training, where you are taught not to touch blood due to risk of infection or HIV, then there would be no real need for someone with HIV to disclose their condition as staff should know not to put themselves at risk.
~ one word: stigma.
The debate is now up to you! Good contributions will be rewarded with reputation throughout the thread and the member who makes the best contributions throughout the month will win the Debater of the Month award, 2 weeks VIP, as well as 250 tokens. Creating interesting member debates will also win you reputation/tokens!
This debate will close on the 9th of February so get your views in