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Comment by cafard | Hacker News Reader

I don't know whether the policy has changed since I read of it many years ago, but the Cuban government treated HIV infection pretty much the way the US government once treated leprosy: turn up positive, and you were quarantined.

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not entirely accurate, yes you are quarantined, but for 8 weeks of intensive education about your condition and the risks of infecting others. Then you are released and given full access to antiretroviral drugs.

Technically, this does work doesn't it?

It works on everybody you find, but that kind of treatment tends to discourage people from coming forward, which can make things worse.

It was a much better environment inside the sanatorium - free good food, medicines, beds, so it isn't too bad of a choice to come forward - some people even injected themselves with HIV to get into the sanatorium.

That seems very short-sighted. With (what appeared at the time as) a looming epidemic, what made them so confident that conditions at the sanatorium would be maintained in the future?

Not in a much more meaningful way than a gunshot to the head works for curing cancer.

For some kinds of cancer a gunshot to the head is the humane choice

I suspect not. It seems likely that such a policy would prevent any at-risk patients voluntarily testing, meaning they remain unaware of their HIV status and continue to spread the virus.

I'm not sure if there's research on this though - it would be interesting to see.

If Cuba is anything like the USSR, preventing voluntary testing does not mean one can remain untested. The government medicine also means you cannot deny medical procedures that the government has prescribed to you.

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