The Editor, Sir:

In response to the publication titled 'Pressure on House to reject HIV pretesting' I must vent my disappointment and disgust with the decisions that the Government is actually taking by putting a body in place to allow employee pre-testing by employers.

Mr Editor, I do believe that the Jamaican people have travelled a long way from the mental block where we used to believe that homosexuality is the root cause of HIV/AIDS transmission, to actually understanding and practising safer sex.

The news item mentioned that the minister of Water and Housing Horace Chang and Opposition Senator Sandrea Falconer stated that it is the right of the employer to pretest recruits for HIV/AIDS. After reading that statement in the Gleaner I was able to see the level of illiteracy facing decision making in this country.

Don't stop there

Policymakers, if we decide to give employers the right to pretest employees, I say let's not stop there. Let us pretest the students in schools, as I am sure the teachers would love to know if their students are HIV positive.

The Jamaican people must ask, how will it benefit the employer to know if his or her mailman, secretary, garbage man, teacher, etc, has aids? Will this knowledge bring on a cause for employees assistance in the purchasing of medication to alleviate the stress faced by these people currently living with the disease?

What I would love to hear is that our Government will be putting on workshops to educate employers on how employees living with AIDS may conduct themselves properly in order to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS to other employees. That would be a great decision.

The truth is pretesting does not reduce the exposure of coworkers to sexually transmitted infections; it will only promote discrimination.

I am, etc.,

RAYMOND OLIVERIA

KEPHILL II

clever2g@yahoo.com

Via Go-Jamaica