ABSTRACT
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is having a substantial impact on health services. The increasing number of those suffering from AIDS is greatly taxing the capacities of public hospitals and clinics, especially in cities like New York and San Francisco. When AIDS was first recognized as a threat, the focus was all on an infectious disease that could or would quickly lead to high mortality rates. AIDS has thrust the lack of home care provisions in the American health care system increasingly into the daily newspapers. Values are balanced against values in constitutional rights cases, otherwise organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and anti-discrimination units of local governments would not be so deeply involved in defending AIDS sufferers in discrimination cases. Early on, blood banks had insisted that their products were absolutely free from AIDS contamination until the lobbying of outraged hemophiliacs and their supporters brought reforms.
