Abstract

BRITO SOSA, Germán; GARCIA REYES, Xiomara; IRAIZOZ BARRIOS, Ana María  and  JIMENEZ HERNANDEZ, Juana María. Knowledge and believes of a Cuban population on HIV/AIDS from a bioethical approach. Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr [online]. 2006, vol.22, n.4, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-3038.

AIDS is a challenge for bioethics, since it is an incurable sexually transmitted disease, where the physician has to face many ethical problems. An analytical and cross-sectional study was conducted, and an original survey prepared by the main author and validated in the Sanatory of Santiago de las Vegas was applied among 300 individuals over 15. 100 of them were patients from the sanatory, 100 from the family physician office # 13, and 100 were doctors from “Julián Grimau” Polyclinic. This survey measures the general knowledge on the disease and the bioethical assessment of the problems caused by this affection. It was found that 16 % of the surveyed subjects from the family physician office do not know that a HIV carrier may transmit the disease, whereas 222 individuals (74 %) consider that the persons suffering from it are discriminated.

Keywords : Bioethics; human immunodeficiency virus; acquired immunodeficiency syndrome,; discrimination.