Got AIDS or HIV? The federal government is taking names.

[Zenlitened]

Even my beloved Massachusetts is caving to the pressure. :(

State's HIV list to require names
Officials promise confidentiality

By Stephen Smith, (Boston) Globe Staff | April 23, 2006

Massachusetts public health authorities later this year will begin requiring that doctors report to the state the name of anyone testing positive for HIV.

(snip)

The decision, reached quietly in recent weeks, emerges as federal health agencies increase pressure on states to adopt uniform HIV reporting standards, including the collection of names. The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told state health officers nine months ago that ''it is critical that all areas move as quickly as possible" to report HIV diagnoses with names attached.

The stakes for failing to comply could be substantial: The federal government is expected to make federal aid for HIV-infected patients contingent on states mandating the reporting of names.

Massachusetts authorities acknowledge their decision to embrace names-based reporting was motivated largely by concerns about losing federal dollars. They estimate the state Department of Public Health could forfeit $9 million a year, and the Boston Public Health Commission could lose $6 million if the names of HIV-positive patients are not reported. That money is used for everything from medication to meals to home healthcare.

More:
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2006/04/23/states_hiv_list_to_require_names/

Hmmm...

We have a government put in place and largely run by religious fundamentalists, with a deep, abiding hatred of gay men, who in this country bear the brunt of the disease.

Elsewhere, across America, prisons are being built specifically to detain large numbers in times of crisis.

And the executive branch has claimed the right to detain people indefinitely, without charges, without even telling families where The Disappeared have gone.

Welcome to Republican America. If you meet a Republican today, punch 'em in the nose.

:grr:

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. Welcome to the Republic of Gilead. nt

[Sugar Smack]

9. No kidding!!

:grr: :nuke:

[William769]

2. Thanks for ruining my Sunday morning

And yes I am HIV positive & yes I just don't give a shit anymore.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Much of this is prophetic

and reminds me of a section of Pink Floyd's The Wall :

Waiting to cut out the deadwood.
Waiting to clean up the city.
Waiting to follow the worms.
Waiting to put on a black shirt.
Waiting to weed out the weaklings.
Waiting to smash in their windows
And kick in their doors.
Waiting for the final solution
To strengthen the strain.
Waiting to follow the worms.
Waiting to turn on the showers
And fire the ovens.
Waiting for the queens and the coons
and the reds and the jews.
Waiting to follow the worms

[MuseRider]

4. Good lord this is scary!

I can't take much more of this.

Somehow I just don't think people will stand for any of the things you suggested but that does not mean it will stop them.

[DrDebug]

5. The Hippocratic Oath

I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfil according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:

To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art - if they desire to learn it - without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but no one else.

I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.

I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.

I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.

Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.

What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.

If I fulfil this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.

[Lars39]

6. There's also a cancer registry.

I don't know if there are penalties for not reporting someone, though.

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. K & R nt

[DBoon]

8. Blackmail fodder

the more sensitive information the government has, the easier to intimidate "incovenient" individuals.


Same reason why they want massive records of who is accessing Internet porn.

[jbnow]

10. The whole article is worth reading

I was surprised to learn there are only 7 states and DC not already using name based reporting. (Though a New York policy director said she never knew there were so many people named George Washington)

They also noted that CA recently changed to it, with the unanimous support of congress and AIDS activist groups that use to lobby against it.

The first page gave the reason they want the names (for prevention and treatment efforts) but I'm not sure why real names are needed for that. I share their expressed concern that some might avoid testing. From another page:

The refined tracking system in Massachusetts, which authorities said they hope to have running by the fall, would maintain records about HIV cases within a closed computer network that would be inaccessible through the Internet. Entry would be so tightly limited that not even Cote could get in, the commissioner said.

When data on cases are sent to the CDC, names would be translated into a code used by all states, a process designed to protect confidentiality while helping federal specialists spot patients counted in multiple states.

Massachusetts already requires reporting by name for many other infectious diseases, such as syphilis and gonorrhea. In addition to name, other identifying information such as age and address, and factors that put patients at risk for contracting the illness, are typically included.

And that policy has applied to patients with full-blown AIDS since the early days of the epidemic in the 1980s -- but those who are infected with HIV and have yet to develop AIDS are the lone exception to names-based reporting. At one time, that was a distinction without any real meaning: AIDS progressed so quickly that specialists believed counting AIDS cases was the most telling measure of the disease's movement.

I just had no idea most states already used names. Funny to be learning that for the first time when it is the 43rd state to have that policy.

[Peggy Day]

11. they already have to provide names of people with TB, Hep A, B or C

and a few other communicable diseases.

[LuCifer]

12. K&R

Needless to say, that is some wack bullshit.

How about a registry of STUPID PEOPLE!? Ya know, start with Chimpy McCokespoon since he's the dumbest asshole of all time!

[DrBloodmoney]

13. Electronic medical records...

... will be the death of medical privacy in this country. Know this before telling your physician:

- you have a mental illness
- you use recreational drugs
- that you'd like to have any genetic testing done (this will affect you and your children... and their children)
- that you are homosexual
- you are an atheist

HIPAA is a fucking joke. The insurance companies will be utilizing all of this ostensibly 'privileged' information to deny you coverage in the future.

Just a public-service announcement from you neighborhood fascist-fearing physician.