Safety, rather than contamination becomes the issue that employer and employee must struggle with. O'Brien and Schiro-Geist state that it is legal to deny airline pilots medical permission to fly should they be diagnosed with AIDS. Medical research supports the belief that disruptions of cognitive ability and spatial and depth perception are associated with PWA. By the same token, it could be argued that HIV positive pilots that are asymptomatic may not yet suffer from the sorts of cognitive dysfunctions associated with HIV/AIDS and secondary infections. However, if one considers the perspective of the enforcement of employee/consumer health and safety, there are supportable arguments to sustain, which could otherwise be viewed only as discriminatory employment practices.
Many employers appreciate and understand that an employee with HIV/AIDS poses no threat as far as contamination and contagion is concerned. Unfortunately however, many are also influenced by concerns that coworkers may present or by the potential loss of clientele if customers ever receive the knowledge that a PWA is employed by the company. As mentioned earlier, the impact of this ignorance and bigotry can be especially devastating to a retailer or service provider.
O'Brien and Schiro-Geist are quick to point out that the only reason why PWA experience difficulty with secondary infections is because the HIV virus has destroyed her or his auto - immune system. These secondary infections pose little or no threat to other, uninfected employees because their immune systems are in adequate condition to ward off the sort of opportunistic (usually bacterial, such as pneumonia) infections that prey upon the immune deficient PWA. It is not often that a PWA intentionally poses a direct threat to third parties, though the few, frequently horrific examples of infection through neglect or willful intent colors the mass perception of PWA. A responsive and responsible legal system and legislative program can do much to alleviate these usually irrational and unfounded concerns. On the other side of this legal, ethical and philosophical quagmire, some employers have utilized the "altruistic defense" in an effort to demonstrate that her or his work environment is not conducive to the health of an employee with HIV/AIDS. This defense usually fails, for all the employer would need to do is provide reasonable accommodation to lessen the danger imposed on the workers health.