Confidentiality Of Hiv/aids

Confidentiality Of Hiv/aids

Confidentiality of HIV/AIDS. Thirty-nine states reported either HIV-specific privacy laws or general privacy statutes that expressly mentioned HIV. Since the development of commercial HIV antibody tests in 1985 prompted the enactment of much of this legislation, the laws primarily protect HIV test results. Yet the scope of potentially sensitive information is broader than the results of an HIV test (e.g., physical findings, sexual or social history, viral cultures, and titers).
Therefore, existing laws may be under-inclusive. More recent statutes safeguard all "HIV-related" information. Depending on the specific language of the statute, certain types of information related to a person's HIV infection may receive less protection than do the results of their HIV antibody testing. Even though both laboratory evidence of a low CD4 count and prescriptions for AZT are highly personal medical information, which when inappropriately disclosed may harm the patient, such information is often not specifically protected.
This problem may be mitigated where other statutes, policies or regulations protect other types of HIV-related information. California statutes dealing with the confidentiality of HIV related information specifically prevent any individual or institution from disclosing an individual's HIV antibody test result without the patient's or client's written authorization. Other types of health care information, including individual medical records and data held by public agencies, also receive extensive protection from disclosure in California (see Protection of Public Health Data and Health Care Information, above). States vary considerably in how stringently they protect the confidentiality of HIV test results or other information. Some states designate HIV-related information as "super confidential," which imposes special burdens on health care providers and grants patients a high degree of control over any disclosures. These states strictly limit the sharing...