Should People With Infectious Diseases Be Allowed in EMS?

[Just Plain Ruff]

Well yeah, if you think that avoiding contact with people who have a contagious, infectious disease -- especially in a society which does not yet have the means to treat it -- is unreasonable, then you may well be an idiot. Microbiology much?

UTPRoism, your posts are thought provoking but leapers(lepers) were not forced to stay outside the city walls. If you read the bible Jesus would heal the leper's and they were usually healed outside the temple walls.

For the historical treatment of Leprosy let's peruse this article http://www.stanford.edu/class/humbio103/Pa...osy/history.htm

the bell statement was accurate though.

But if you really look at it this way, Christ had no problem touching the lepers, so maybe we shouldn't have a problem touching the HIV patients.

[Dustdevil]

But if you really look at it this way, Christ had no problem touching the lepers, so maybe we shouldn't have a problem touching the HIV patients.

Christ is immortal. I am not. To think that I am like Christ is not only blasphemous, but suicidal.

[UtProsim]

Well yeah, if you think that avoiding contact with people who have a contagious, infectious disease -- especially in a society which does not yet have the means to treat it -- is unreasonable, then you may well be an idiot. Microbiology much?

twist and play on words much? why dont you use my whole post and not just select the parts you find easy to manipulate?

[Dustdevil]

twist and play on words much? why dont you use my whole post and not just select the parts you find easy to manipulate?

Geeze, man. This is the risk you run when you write things so rambling that they are hard to understand. I quoted over half of your poorly punctuated, run-on paragraph. I was trying to be succinct. But, if you'll point out which part I left out that you are just dying for me to specifically reply to, I'll be happy to accommodate you.

[UtProsim]

Geeze, man. This is the risk you run when you write things so rambling that they are hard to understand. I quoted over half of your poorly punctuated, run-on paragraph. I was trying to be succinct. But, if you'll point out which part I left out that you are just dying for me to specifically reply to, I'll be happy to accommodate you.

LOL, you know what they say about opinions..... :pottytrain2: but hey...everyones entitled to their own. :roll:

[Lone Star]

I think I am being misunderstood, and I guess it really doesn't matter, but I think it is dead wrong to discriminate against someone because they have a disease, put yourself in the other persons shoes here, lets say you have a disease, lets say you got it from a blood transfusion, or some other way that either was or was not your fault, now lets say all you have ever wanted to do with your life was be a nurse or a doctor or an EMT,Paramedic or a Firefighter, hmmmm, how would you feel if someone said, umm, lets violate your right to privacy, and lets discriminate against you because you have a disease that we as a people are afraid of, this happened to people in the days of Christ, when leapers were forced to remain outside the city and wear a bell around their necks so that when they walked around it would ring and everyone would know, hey...theres a leaper, they were hated and ostracized and forced to live like animals, publicly humiliated and verbally abused. feel free to criticize me for this post, lol, I'm sure someone will, go ahead, cut it apart, say I'm an idiot for respecting others and trying to put myself in their shoes, and for trying to love my neighbor as myself.

Try putting your feet in the patients shoes...you've been in a serious MVA (motor vehicle accident). You've just been told that you won't ever walk again....a year or two later, you're diagnosed as HIV positive (nothing in your clean church going past, has put you 'at risk'), you've recieved no transfusions, platelets or plasma. You got infected by an EMT who cut his hand on the wreckage of your car and then infected you....NOW how do you feel about it?

[UtProsim]

Try putting your feet in the patients shoes...you've been in a serious MVA (motor vehicle accident). You've just been told that you won't ever walk again....a year or two later, you're diagnosed as HIV positive (nothing in your clean church going past, has put you 'at risk'), you've recieved no transfusions, platelets or plasma. You got infected by an EMT who cut his hand on the wreckage of your car and then infected you....NOW how do you feel about it?

I would feel horrible...... but this is precisely the point I have been trying to make......If a person has a disease such as the afore mentioned....and they have or have not done anything to contract it, but by some accident, have a disease, then should they be discriminated against? and stopped from going to EMT school, or the Fire Academy? Lets say just for arguments sake, we are talking about a 16 year old child, lets say all their life, all they have wanted to be was a Firefighter and an EMT, or a Paramedic, lets say this was their life dream, and they have been planning on going to school to fulfill their life's dream, and suddenly, they find out at a annual physical exam, that they have somehow contracted a disease, what a horrifying blow, what a life altering experience,....now.....they turn 18 and enter EMT school, should they be asked on the application if they have any diseases?......should they not be allowed into the program because of their disease?......that sound like discrimination to me.....and what if you were the parent of this poor kid?....you would be enraged at such a discriminatory decision on the part of the school, to not let your child into the program because of a disability that they have, you would start a petition, you would get a lawyer and threaten to sue, all the meanwhile, your 16 year old child is devastated, at home, wont leave their room, wont eat, totally depressed and crushed, all they wanted to do with their life was to be a EMT and a Firefighter, it was all they ever dreamed about, and now someone is telling them that they can NEVER be what they always dreamed of being, simply because they had somehow contracted an disease. OUCH!

[Dustdevil]

I totally understand where you are coming from. And, just like you, I would feel horrible either way. But you are exhibiting exactly what I have been talking about from the very beginning. You're trying to decide a public health issue based on nothing more than how it makes you "feel." This is not logical.

Life is a bitch. Period. We don't get to get our way all the time, and the Constitution doesn't guarantee it. You are guaranteed the right to pursue happiness. But, that doesn't mean it will be given to you in the end. Not every kid that tries out for the basketball team gets to play in the real world. And all the feelgood psychobabblers who think there are no losers in life -- that everybody gets a ribbon -- are screwing our kids up that that nonsense. I want the person who is best qualified in every respect to be my healthcare provider. I don't care if your only dream in life is to be an ambulance driver. If you can't meet the standards, then that's too bad. You don't see me suing the NBA because they won't pay a 5'6" white boy $10 million a year. And you also don't see me going on CNN and whining about how my feelings are hurt by it. It's time for society to toughen up.

[Lone Star]

I would feel horrible...... but this is precisely the point I have been trying to make......If a person has a disease such as the afore mentioned....and they have or have not done anything to contract it, but by some accident, have a disease, then should they be discriminated against? and stopped from going to EMT school, or the Fire Academy? Lets say just for arguments sake, we are talking about a 16 year old child, lets say all their life, all they have wanted to be was a Firefighter and an EMT, or a Paramedic, lets say this was their life dream, and they have been planning on going to school to fulfill their life's dream, and suddenly, they find out at a annual physical exam, that they have somehow contracted a disease, what a horrifying blow, what a life altering experience,....now.....they turn 18 and enter EMT school, should they be asked on the application if they have any diseases?......should they not be allowed into the program because of their disease?......that sound like discrimination to me.....and what if you were the parent of this poor kid?....you would be enraged at such a discriminatory decision on the part of the school, to not let your child into the program because of a disability that they have, you would start a petition, you would get a lawyer and threaten to sue, all the meanwhile, your 16 year old child is devastated, at home, wont leave their room, wont eat, totally depressed and crushed, all they wanted to do with their life was to be a EMT and a Firefighter, it was all they ever dreamed about, and now someone is telling them that they can NEVER be what they always dreamed of being, simply because they had somehow contracted an disease. OUCH!

So to insure that these people are happy and all their dreams come true, it's acceptable to let them work in an environment where they can potentially pass a disease like HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis on to the unsuspecting patient? What about that patient who got infected? What about their dreams to grow up and live a long life free from such diseases? Don't you think that it's unfair to the patient that got infected by an EMT that accidently passed the disease to them?

I'm sorry...but as it's been said in here before 'Life aint always hug and kisses and happy faces'! Before we all break out the guitars and sit around the campfire holding hands and singing 'Kumbyah' in three part harmony...let's open our eyes to reality and practicality!

[Just Plain Ruff]

were you one of those kids who didn't get to do what you wanted and you spent all your time in your room? You sound like you speak from experience.

you know, sometimes you don't get to do what you want, it's called the real world.

All I ever wanted to be was president but my parents told me that wasn't a good idea, and that I couldn't, but I didn't sulk away and go in my room.

Jeesh, your arguments are weak. This is a common thing in society, we don't want our kids to feel bad, or feel like they won't amount to something or we just don't want them to think they are losers when in fact they aren't going to be able to do certain things.

If you raise your children with the expectation that everything they want is theirs for the taking and no matter what they will get what they want, then we raise children who can't take rejection and cannot take the fact that they might not measure up to a certain standard.

We can't play tag anymore because a child might think they have a disease when they art It. We don't keep score in sports anymore for kids because they might LOSE.

We pass idiots who are the jocks in school because in reality they are too stupid to do anything else but play football and this rolls over into college. But hey thats the status quo.

Some people are destined to be garbage collectors, zoo keepers, paramedics, doctors and what not and that is that. If we keep telling our children that they can do anything they want what do we tell them when they are not good enough for a chosen profession. We raise a group of children who cannot take rejection, cannot take failure and are not successful in life.