New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) is defending its proposal to more widely share collected health information from on people with HIV, Gay City News reports. As part of a project funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 12 jurisdictions with the highest AIDS prevalence proposed plans for HIV prevention plans. The NYC DOHMH prevention plan included sharing data on any person with HIV with other health departments across the country, allowing the health department to keep the names of the sex partners of HIV-positive persons people indefinitely or a minimum of 10 years, and to gain access to Medicaid pharmacy billing records. Activists are concerned that the DOHMH health department might eventually use that wealth of information in criminal prosecution. The DOHMH said they it is only trying to ensure continuity of services and to avoid case duplication.

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