ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

252Rodica Ţuguidie, and this could be happening in a very simple way on a daily basis. That isthe only difference between the two categories. So the priest can make themmore realistic, more aware that they can still be happy, avoiding the strongdepression into which they can fall.The group discussions emphasized certain situations the sero-positiveconfronts, with the lack of medication and most often a behavior which betrays alack of interest and involvement of the personnel who should take care of theirproblems. Nevertheless, as some participants at the focus groups say, the medicationcrisis is almost general in the Romanian medical system and this fact shouldn`taffect the sero-positives because of the repercussions which can`t be reversed. 32In the specialized literature 33 it is considered that neither the infectiouscharacter (and the fact that it is transmitted and it’s also epidemic) and it’sgravity are not enough in themselves to turn AIDS into a social plague. Thecreation of «a visible social movement» was the main condition for admiting theepidemic as a matter of general interest. This social movement took not only aphilanthropic organization or a group of physicians, but also a group ofassociations of the sick people and of support for the sick, demanding politicaland social changes to fight against the malady. The permanent partners ofdiscussions from the medical system and of the public authority need theseassociations to participate in a strong way, as never before, to elaborate a publichealth policy.The apparition of the AIDS plague articulates itself in a very similarway to the other maladies considered as «multiple calamities» : on one hand, inthe medical field (the discovery of a new patology is quite a rare event and tobecome the object of theoretical and clinical stakes important enough to create adynamic transformation for research and care) and on the other hand about thesocial involvment of the epidemic (if the solutions depend on the evolution ofmedical science, knowledge about the maladies, perspectives of therapy andprevention, as well as therapeutic measures for the epidemic, it also raisesquestions on the sexual representation of the disease through issues of sexualbehavior or drug usage, therefore presenting different visions on the socialscale). Considering these stakes, the groups organize and consider strategies ofpublic health which respect individual freedom. And maybe it wouldn`t beuninteresting «to mobilize the device» of counterattacking AIDS spreading inRomania but also «to develop» a social attitude of tolerance and respect forindividual values, identifying the moment in which we find ourselves in this32 “Another problem which I saw manifesting was the lack of medicine and the lack ofinterest which the abled persons should have, meaning the medical specialists and the hospitalswhere they are registered. They have come to confront themselves with a large crisis of medicinesbecause the entire medical system is in crisis. In the case of the sero-positives, an interuption of themedication leaves a big mark from which it can be very hard to recover. When an HIV infectedperson’s medication is interrupted and even if he’s back on it after a few days, the consequencesare very serious; it`s possible to have an infection and that infection could lead to an ending”.(priest Bucureşti)33 See: Claude Thiaudière, op. cit.