Islam and AIDS

Abstract

The initial impact of the Moslem world with the problem of the AIDS has immediately assumed a strong apologetic connotation and of sentence of the infection as consequence of illegitimate behaviours of western imprint. In this sense many Islamic jurisconsults, the press and more than few physicians are expressed. All prefer the exaltation of the purity of the Islam and his rules of life to the prejudice of the attention devoted to the analysis of the ethical, medical and social problems of the patients.

The Islamic solution to the AIDS risk consists in the pre-marriage abstinence and in the early marriage. Even if to a large extent of States the percentage of infected is low (but constantly in growth in some social groups) the authorities have the tendency to minimise the figures; besides they seem reluctant to report the healthcare situation regarding the spread of sexualtransmitted diseases not to compromise themselves to political-religious criticisms.

The citizens are strongly reluctant to reveal their own sexual habits and to participate to investigations on the problem. Contemporarily also the patients and their relatives prefer to hide the infection for shame and fear of the social consequences. Very similar attitudes are found in West among the infected immigrants and their relatives. For the Islam the physician is a divine tool and he cannot confine to take care of, but on the contrary, he should deal himself with the whole person, with the values that direct the daily behaviour, including the sexuality.