AIDS in the Workplace: Discrimination by Ignorance
AIDS in the Workplace: Discrimination by Ignorance
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"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
Franklin Delano Roosevelt.'
INTRODUCTION
The impact of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has
been devastating throughout the last ten years. By the end of the 1980s,
the United States Public Health Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had
received reports of approximately 65,000 AIDS cases and 35,000
AIDSrelated deaths. 2 As many as 1.0 million to 1.5 million Americans were
infected with the- virus.3 Estimates indicate that every year well over
300,000 new AIDS cases will be reported to the CDC.4
AIDS is no longer a disease that most often affects high-risk groups
of homosexuals and intravenous (IV) drug users.5 The number of
hetero
Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1933).
Thomas C. Quinn, Perspectives in the AIDS Epidemic: The Experiences Within the
United States, 23 BULL. PAN AM. 4EALTH ORG. 9, 9 (1989) (citing epidemic number of AIDS
cases reported during 1980s).
' Alan R. Lifson, Do Alternative Methods for Transmission Exist?, 259 JAMA 1353, 1355
(1988); see Robert J. Blendon & Karen Donelan, DiscriminationAgainst People with AIDS:
The Public'sPerspective,319 NEw ENG. J. MED. 1022, 1025 (1988) (one in every 200
Americans is infected with AIDS virus).
' Cf. Quinn, supra note 2, at 9-10 ("The number of AIDS cases projected through 1992
using the methods of extrapolation and back calculation are 310,000 and 380,000
respectively.").
I See Harry W. Haverkos & Robert Edelman, The Epidemiology of Acquired
Immunodeficiency Syndrome Among Heterosexuals, 260 JAMA 1922, 1922-29 (1988) (discussing
sexual cases of AIDS reported to the CDC doubles every fourteen to
sixteen months. s Unfortunately, public fears and misconceptions have
increased and have led to harsh discriminatory practices affecting
education, employment, health care, and housing." The myths and fears
surrounding AIDS have been as damaging to the afflicted as the disease
itself.5
Although a survey indicated that by 1988 less than fifty lawsuits had
been filed regarding AIDS discrimination in the workplace, a drastic
increase in litigation should occur in the years to come.9 Statutory and
judicial responses on employment and related benefits protection have been
shaped by the efforts of AIDS activists and civil-liberties groups."°
Moreover, the availability of new drugs and treatments will afford AIDS
victims the opportunity to prolong their lives and to remain in the
workplace despite the contagious yet controllable disease." Thus, balancing
the interests and rights of AIDS victims, their co-workers, and employers
will constitute a definite challenge for the 1990s. 2
This Note will address some of the issues related to AIDS
discrimination in the workplace. First, it will explore the medical characteristics
of the disease, including methods of transmission and available
treatments. Second, it will discuss the legal issues implicated by the
classification of AIDS as a handicap. Third, it will enumerate various forms of
statutory protection and their impact on victims, co-workers, and
employers. Finally, this Note will suggest the need for public education and
employment policies to effectively assist courts and legislators in battling
heterosexual transmission of AIDS in United States, Africa and Haiti).
o Id. at 1927. Of the adult-afflicted AIDS cases reported to CDC, 63% were homosexual or
bisexual men, 19% IV drug users, 7% homosexual men who were also IV drug users, 4%
heterosexuals, 3% blood transfusion recipients, 1% hemophiliacs, and 3% individuals for
whom the risk factor information was incomplete. See Quinn, supra note 2, at 9. Among the
child cases, 77% were born to a parent with AIDS or at risk for AIDS, 13% were blood
transfusion recipients, 6% hemophiliacs, and 4% children for whom the risk factor
information was incomplete. Id.
Larry Gostin, A Decade of a Maturing Epidemic: An Assessment and.Directionfor
Future Public Policy, 16 AM. J.L. & MED. 1, 19 (1990).
' See id. at 20. "Society's accumulated myths and fears about disability and disease are just
as handicapping as are the physical limitations that flow from actual impairment. Few
aspects of handicap give rise to the same level of public fear and misapprehension as
contagiousness." Id. (quoting School Bd. v. Arline, 480 U.S. 273, 284 (1987)).
' Thamer E. Temple, Employers Prepare:Hope for AIDS Victims Means Conflict in Your
Workplace, 41 LAB.L.J. 694, 694-95 (1990). Until recently, AIDS victims have not survived
long enough to bring a lawsuit. New drugs, however, have dramatically increased the life
expectancy of AIDS patients. Id.
10 Arthur S. Leonard, AIDS, Employment a (...truncated)