November 28, 2011

NYC Proposes Expanding HIV/AIDS Data Surveillance

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has proposed new state regulations for collecting and sharing data about HIV-positive individuals and their sexual partners, according to a prevention plan filed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and reported by Gay City News. The plan calls for sharing data on an HIV-positive individual with another jurisdiction should that person move there; sharing all of its case information on any person with HIV in its registry with any other jurisdiction that also has that person’s name in its registry; retaining the names of sex partners of HIV-positive people either indefinitely or for 10 years; and the right to contact the doctor or any person who constitutes “an ongoing public health risk” and to access Medicaid pharmacy billing records. AIDS support groups are concerned that this information could be used against individuals in criminal prosecutions.

To read the Gay City News article, click here.

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Previous Comments:

Jeton Ademaj, Harlem, NYC, 2011-11-28 21:46:24
clearly NYC is moving in the direction of increasing the number of HIV-related prosecutions. I fear prosecutions run amok, and witchhunts...yet i have mixed feelings. i have seen some glimpses of a bugchasing and giftgiving subculture that is no less real for being murky and hard to pin down. the former is horrifying, but the latter can indeed be murderous in intent and effect...especially when done sans disclosure. when the DOHMH gets enough reports of same, proposals like this result.

Jeton Ademaj, Harlem, NYC, 2011-11-28 21:36:40
Big Brother shows up? money quotes...The DOHMH wants to be able to contact the doctor of any person who constitutes “an ongoing public health risk as a result of their being named repeatedly over time by different persons interviewed” by the agency’s Field Services Unit...AND...the DOHMH wants to discuss “cross-cutting issues of policing and public health” with the NYPD, and the health department wants to present data, including “high risk behavioral surveillance data,” at police roll calls.