What if a person works for a public institution like, lets say, a college or a High School? If they find out that this virus is passed by saliva, nasal secretions and lung secretions, do you think that person could loose their job, even if they are careful? I know in the case of HIV, your status is confidential.
i personally think yes as schools etc have a "duty of care" to their students and need to protect them from harm. AIDS cant be transmitted in teacher/student relationships.
i started up a poll on this site ages ago to see what peoples general reactions would be to a neighbours child having a severe illness which a virus was involved in and possibly contagious.. and if you'd then allow your child to go over and play with that child. Most of us wouldnt allow it. That poll i'd posted, to try to guage what a public reaction could be to all the XMRV stuff.
...........
i think most of us with canadian defined CFS may be less worried about being stigmatised as WE ALREADY ARE.. Most of us are too sick to be working (so dont have to be worried about loosing jobs .. half of us are sick enough to be on disability payments as we had no choice as we couldnt work). Many of us are shunned by families who dont understand how we cant push throu and do normal things.. (i dont think stigmatising gets much greater then when ones own families do it too). Many of us arent already part of our communities as we are too sick to be.
We've been long stimatised as people know others with other subgroups of CFS eg the Empirial defination who may be quite capable of working other then feeling like a bit 'tired" and hence dont understand why we are so ill. The ones who werent so sick many have been happy to be put with ones with ME and probably havent protested being in the same group (but hopefully this will change now.. if those with CFS/ME are stigmatised due to XMRV, maybe others who werent protesting before about the need for the subgroups to be made separate will protest now).
I dont know how many have gotten this.. but ive found stigmatism to be within our own communities.. this is why some branches of our communities have split off... separating the very sick from the not so sick (things like the Hummingbirds group comes to mind here.... so many of them are treated badly by ones who dont understand that sickest group). I myself have been treated like im lazy by some in CFS communities when i was very very ill..
What is even worst.. the worst stigmatising.. has been the studies been based on Fuduka and Empiral definations.. without studies on ME. (the whole topic of stigmatism gets me going as i cant see how the CC group can be much more stigmatised then it has been)
Its kind of weird but what may be very good for us, my be very bad for those in the other subgroups of CFS eg those who have been diagnosed via phone poll but who have never needed to see a doctor about their "tiredness".
This shake up is great.. these groups.. ME and CFS should of NEVER been put together and grouped as one. It hasnt been fair on the ME ones and now it isnt going to be far on the empirial etc ones. The whole thing has been unfair for ALL of us.. and the CDC and Wessely is to blame by trying to make ME disappear by merging it with waste basket diagnoses which "lazy" doctors use (instead of getting off their butts and giving people more tests and truely working out what is wrong with their health! Be it overworking, chronic depression, or missed physical illnesses).