ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

The “HIV/AIDS” Phenomenon level of knowledge perceptions and atitudes 249The researchers appreciate 20 that the fight against HIV reflects twoways of thinking and acting, characteristic of the “two regimes”: one old and theother one new represented thru specific “devices” to fight against largeinfectious diseases. One way to fight against HIV, a sickness transmitted thrublood and sex, reestablishes “silent” ties with social hygiene often associatedwith sanitary control and the punishment of bad habits. The ways ofintervention, when fighting against infectious diseases, dates from the beginningof the century. Among the ways of fighting we find the discovery of the diseaseand the obligation to fight against certain sexual diseases. Today this system isconsidered too old, both socially and medically. If there still are medicalfacilities specialized in medical diseases (for prevention and sanitoriums fortuberculosis) these don’t take (or shouldn’t take) anything less than a marginalposition in the medical system. “The new regime”, referring to degenerativepathologies, is manifesting thru methods curative medicine occupies and is in animportant place within the usual interventions. The curative treatments are moredifficult due to needing periods of short stays in the hospitals and both theprofessional and family life can follow their course and that`s why they constitutea major medical and social objective. In this context the rules of prevention referto an individual who’s held responsible, free and able to administer himself. Thechanges of behavior constitute themselves in a very essential pedagogicalobjective so the model of intervention is not based on techniques used on a largescale as the policies to fight against tuberculosis were.Inspired by the two ways of intervention, the methods of preventingHIV put a question mark between two concepts, often very much debated,regarding upon which one to structure the policies of public health. In this sense,the debates over mandatory or voluntary disclosure are very revealing, as well asthe discussions over social control of sexual practices or about the informationand education founded on admitting individual freedoms. And these disputescombine themselves with the controversies which appear in the scientific field,starting with the disclosure of the disease. 21 . It seems that the discussions fromthe focus groups reflect the diversity of approaches about the problem of HIV,older or newer concepts related to how to prioritize HIV socially and medicallyand also to have a certain mentality towards individual liberties and specificmentalities about community protection.and for a week all the tv stations broadcasted this visit. And it`s not only about this visit but alsoabout contests such as Big Brother, for example. Sexual relationships between young people, and notonly them, are encouraged and promoted by the tv stars that haven`t been bound by the holy mysteryof marriage and which say that they are not interested in marrige, etc.” ( priest Iaşi )20 See: Claude Thiaudière, op.cit.21Two medical theories are confronted in explaining the theories. There is abacteriological cause in which the essence is a pathogen agent (the immunodeficiency virus),which is very similar to the pathogens of other infectious diseases (called opportunist), and existsas a result of deficiency found in the organism’s protection system. Another explanation is basedon the immunological theories which started with the second half of the XIXth century and have adominant position in the medical field.