The ethical and moral issues of AIDS.

1. International University of Kyrgyzstan,
International School of Medicine
Presentation Topis: AIDS; Moral & Ethical Issues
Student Name: Memoona Arshad
Group: 11

2. What is AIDS?
• Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a
chronic, potentially life-threatening condition
caused by the human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV). By damaging your immune system, HIV
interferes with your body's ability to fight
infection and disease.
• AIDS is a disease that can develop in people with
HIV. It’s the most advanced stage of HIV. But just
because a person has HIV doesn’t mean they’ll
develop AIDS.

3. Causes of AIDS
• Anyone can contract HIV. The virus is transmitted in bodily fluids that
include:
– Blood
– Semen
– Vaginal and rectal fluids
– Breast milk
• Some of the ways HIV is spread from person to person include:
– through vaginal or anal sex — the most common route of transmission,
especially among men who have sex with men
– by sharing needles, syringes, and other items for injection drug use
– by sharing tattoo equipment without sterilizing it between uses
– during pregnancy, labor, or delivery from a woman to her baby
– during breastfeeding
– through “pre-mastication,” or chewing a baby’s food before feeding it to them
– through exposure to the blood of someone living with HIV, such as through a
needle stick

4. Moral & Ethical Issues
• Globally the HIV/AIDS epidemic has presented
unique health challenges to populations,
including a host of ethical and moral issues
related to human life and dignity.
• The disease has most affected the vulnerable
groups of people in the world often leading to
stigma and discrimination. Currently the critical
areas of concern include access to treatment and
developing newer, more effective therapeutic and
prevention methods while taking care of ethical
values in health care and research.

5. Moral & Ethical Issues (Contd.)
• The ethical issues mainly revolve around the
standard of care, informed consent across
cultures, privacy and confidentiality, stigma
and discrimination, protection of vulnerable
groups, community consultation, ethical
review mechanisms, international
collaboration, epidemiological studies, clinical
trials and also sociobehavioural studies on
HIV/AIDS.

6. Moral & Ethical Issues (Contd.)
• In addition major concerns are raised regarding
HIV/AIDS vaccine trials, microbicidal trials as well as
prevention of parent-to-child transmission (PPTCT)
trials especially in resource-poor countries.
• For international collaborative research appropriate
standard of care, community benefits, and host
country needs must be kept in mind. Improving our
understanding of the various ethical and societal
concerns related to HIV/AIDS treatment and research
would help in development of appropriate policies for
disease control and prevention.

7. Moral & Ethical Issues (Contd.)
• The moral issues associated with AIDS can be
understood in two ways.
– Firstly, they may refer to the social determinants of
the pandemic.
– Secondly, they relate to the social impact of the
pandemic.
• Ethical questions present some of the most
vexing problems associated with HIV infection.
Ethics cannot be considered in a vacuum. The
social context dictates how the principles of
ethics are applied and interpreted.

8. Moral & Ethical Issues (Contd.)
• The effects of HIV/AIDS multiply far beyond
the infected individual.
• In the long run, it has the potential to affect
whole sectors of the economy and societies as
resources will be required for increasing
number of people living with HIV/AIDS and for
the care of increasing number of orphans.

9. References
• https://www.healthline.com/health/hiv-
aids#hiv-transmission
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1581
7966
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P
MC4923030/