New state program protects privacy Reporting of HIV infections will increase in Hawai’i without sacrificing patients’ confidentiality under a new program announced Thursday by the state Department of Health. Starting Oct. 1, the department will require laboratories, physicians and other
New state program protects privacy
Reporting of HIV infections will increase in Hawai’i without sacrificing patients’ confidentiality under a new program announced Thursday by the state Department of Health.
Starting Oct. 1, the department will require laboratories, physicians and other healthcare providers statewide to report HIV cases. New and previously diagnosed cases will be included in the system that emerged from three years of planning by health officials and HIV/AIDS activists.
The HIV information will help give “a much clearer picture of the spread of the epidemic in Hawai’i” and improve the allocation of “limited resources for HIV prevention and care,” said Bruce Anderson, director of the health department.
Confidentiality for the patients will be protected, which is important to them and agencies such as Malama Pono, the Kaua’i anti-AIDS project that helped formulate the new reporting procedure.
“Hawai’i has a long history of protecting the interests of people,” said Jim McNulty, an education worker with Malama Pono and an HIV tester for the health department. In the latter role, he tests people anonymously for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Officials at Malama Pono and Kaua’i Community College also conduct confidential tests. Under the new reporting rules, if a patient tests positive for HIV, the information will continue to be given to the health department without revealing the person’s name.
In Hawai’i and other states, patients’ privacy has been a key in reporting HIV cases.
“As long as the confidentiality is still taken care of, we have no problem with the new system,” McNulty said.
Since 1985, HIV has been found in 2,468 people in Hawai’i. Of those, 103 on Kaua’i were diagnosed with AIDS, and about half of them died, according to McNulty.
The health department’s new statewide “surveillance program,” said Peter Whiticar, HIV/AIDS prevention branch chief, requires labs and doctors to report every HIV case. They’re forbidden from including patients’ names, however. Duplicate case reports will be removed by program officials, he said.
AIDS has been a reportable condition in all states, including Hawai’i, since 1983. But reporting the disease may not provide the best information for tracking it, officials said. They said new and stronger treatments are helping people with HIV live longer, so there is a need for support and medical care to prevent new infections.
Federal and state funds for efforts to prevent HIV infections are allocated based on the number of AIDS cases and resulting indicators of which people are most affected and at the highest risk of contracting the disease. In recent years, health officials and AIDS service organizations have discussed ways of tracking HIV/AIDS cases to get the most useful data.
Case-reporting will only help if people are tested by public health clinics, organizations or their own doctors, thus the importance of confidentiality to encourage patients to come forward. Officials said emphasis on testing can help individuals change their behavior and reduce the chance of spreading HIV through sexual contact or needle-injected drugs.
Editor Pat Jenkins can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 227) and mailto:pjenkins@pulitzer.net
