AIDS Action Committee Opposes Public Health Council’s Adopted Regulation To Report Cases Of HIV By Name

November 16, 2006 – 9:04 pm | posted in HIV / AIDS

AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, Inc. today announced its opposition to the Public Health Council’s adoption of a regulation requiring providers to report cases of HIV infection by name to the Department of Public Health, instead of the code that has been in use since 1999.

In response to a threat by the federal Office of Health and Human Services to cut funds used to provide services to people living with HIV/AIDS, Paul Cote, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, decided last spring to abandon Massachusetts’ name-based code reporting system.

“Although the threat was real, the Commissioner’s decision was premature. The evidence is clear that Massachusetts’ system produced reliable information on HIV cases and outperformed many of the states that report HIV cases by name,” said Denise McWilliams, Esq., Director of Public Policy and Legal Affairs, AIDS Action. “This action is not about getting accurate information; our system already does that. This is about getting names.”

The Department of Public Health has collected the names of those diagnosed with AIDS and other illnesses for years and there have been no reported breaches of the confidentiality of those persons. But the onset of the digital era has created new hazards to the privacy of people with reportable illnesses. “Just in the last year, we have seen countless examples of the difficulty of protecting the identities of people in databases,” said McWilliams. “The loss of a single laptop from the Department of Veteran Affairs put the privacy of thousands of people at risk. Unfortunately, most government agencies still apply pen and paper rules in a digital era. Today, the collection of names creates risks that simply didn’t exist 10 years ago.”

AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, Inc., (AAC), New England’s first and largest AIDS organization, is dedicated to stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS by preventing new infections and optimizing the health of those already infected. AAC provides free confidential services to more than 2,500 men and women already living with HIV/AIDS, as well as conducts extensive educational and prevention outreach to those at risk of infection. AAC runs the only statewide AIDS Hotline (1.800.235.2331), Hepatitis Hotline (1.888.443.4372) and Pharmacy Access Hotline (1.800.988.5209). AAC also advocates for effective science-based prevention programs. More information is available at http://www.aac.org/.

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