Even as the military metaphor has been partially displaced by business and economics metaphors in the changing structure of healthcare, it has gained favor as a way to describe and direct society's response to the major epidemic of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Societies often resort to the metaphor of war when a serious threat to a large number of human lives requires the mobilization of vast societal resources, especially when that threat comes from biological organisms, such as viruses, that invade the human body. And AIDS activists have appealed to the military metaphor in an effort to galvanize society and to marshal its resources for an effective counterattack against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. However, critics charge that the war on AIDS has diverted important resources away from other important wars, such as the war against cancer.

Other controversies have emerged. From the beginning of the war against AIDS, identification of the enemy has been a major goal. Once the virus was identified as the primary enemy, it also became possible to identify human beings who carry or harbor the virus. This technology then led to efforts to identify HIV-infected individuals, even through mandatory screening and testing, as potential enemies of the society. In social discourse and practice, the carrier tends to become an enemy as much as the virus he or she carries, especially since society views many actions that expose individuals to the risk of HIV infection as blameworthy. Thus, the metaphor of war often coexists with metaphors of AIDS as punishment and as otherness (Ross, 1989a, 1989b; Sontag). In this specific case of war against AIDS, just as in the general war against disease, the military metaphor would be less dangerous if society adhered to the constraints of the just-war tradition, rather than being tempted by a crusade.

References:

1)         Ross, Judith. 1989a. "Ethics and the Language of AIDS." In The Meaning of AIDS: Implications for Medical Science, Clinical Practice and Public Health Policy, pp. 30-41, ed. Eric T. Juengst and Barbara A. Koenig. New York: Praeger.

2)         Ross, Judith. 1989b. "The Militarization of Disease: Do We Really Want a War on AIDS?" Soundings 72(1): 39-50.

3)         Sontag, Susan. 1990. Illness as Metaphor; and, AIDS and Its Metaphors. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books.

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