what is this article about The public's reaction to the threat of Ebola virus mirrored that...
The public's reaction to the threat of Ebola virus mirrored that of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic when it first surfaced. Similar to Ebola virus, there were no effective management options when HIV first emerged, and both diseases had poor prognoses. Because healthcare facilities provide care to patients during any epidemic, healthcare workers (HCWs) are at increased risk of contracting infection, and not all HCWs have willingly accepted that obligation. In fact, during the 1980s, there were many publicized examples of providers distancing themselves from AIDS patients, leading the Surgeon General to publically assail those who were refusing to provide care and denouncing them as a “fearful and irrational minority" who were guilty of "unprofessional conduct." It was during that period that the highly sensitive issues of law, ethics, morality, and social cohesion came to the forefront. In 1988, a seminal article was published reporting the degree to which physicians felt that it would be ethical to deny care to patients with AIDS [1]. Slightly more than one quarter of a century later, in the fall of 2014, the world's attention turned to Ebola, and a level of concern similar to that which had been seen in regard to AIDS in the pre-highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) era could again be seen in the lay press (2-4). Not as much attention has been paid to whether physicians' attitudes towards Ebola mirror those of physicians in the 1980s in regard to AIDS.