LavenderRed_Cubabook

Media in the South and Jerry Falwell’s right-wing fundamentalist publication Moral
Majority Inc. editorialized that AIDS was God’s “deserved punishments” against homosexuals.
(aidssurvivalproject.org)
Far-right columnist Patrick Buchanan titled his commentary: “AIDS Disease: It’s
Nature Striking Back.”
That’s why the late Bobbi Campbell, a San Francisco registered nurse with AIDS, told
Workers World in 1984 how concerned he was about the political abuses of broad quarantine
measures in the U.S. He warned, “We would see gay men locked up en masse and
it is possible in more backward localities that lesbians could be included in that.” (“Bobbi
Campbell calls for solidarity”)
The U.S. government declared war on people with AIDS rather than marshal funds
and forces to deal with the epidemic.
Science, not scapegoating
By contrast, Cuba—an island nation of 11 million that was blockaded by U.S. imperialism—had
prepared its health care system for the epidemic two years before its first
diagnosis of an AIDS case. So when AIDS first emerged in the population, it could be
easily identified and isolated before being spread to the rest of the people.
In 1986, Cuba opened up 13 sanatoria that provided care for 99 people, only 20 percent
of whom were believed to have contracted AIDS through same-sex contact. (Aguilera)
Joseph Mutti wrote from Havana in June 1999, “Once a person has tested HIV-positive,
attempts are made to trace everyone who had sexual contact with the person. Given
Cubans’ general openness about their sexuality, and Cuba’s cradle-to-grave health care
system, it’s usually possible to ascertain how and when a person was infected.
“The basic principle of the Cuban public health-care system, widely recognized as the
Third World’s best,” Mutti explained, “is to prioritize the health of the population as a
whole instead of focusing exclusively on individual care. This is important for understanding
HIV/AIDS policies, including the sanatorium system that earned Cuba an
unfair reputation for employing repression to counter the virus.” (Mutti)
The newspaper Granma explained Cuba’s reasons for using quarantine: “The main
usefulness of this measure is to slow down as much as possible the epidemic progression
of the disease to allow time for other measures of disease control to have a medium- or
long-term effect, such as education (encouraging changes in sexual habits and behavior),
until such time as a vaccine and treatment exist, auguring a definitive solution to the
problem.” (“Cuban Strategy”)
When asked about the Cuban approach to AIDS, then-Cuban Deputy Public Health
Minister Hector Terry explained in October 1987, “The quarantine center is a sanatorium.
We have a very small number of people carrying the virus, and we believe that
because of that, we are in a unique situation. We have an opportunity, in epidemiological
terms, of controlling the spread of AIDS and preventing it from becoming a major
50 Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba