The Washington Blade; Friday, March 21, 1997
Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Coburn's bill, the HIV Prevention Act of 1997, also calls on states to adopt programs to contact the partners of people who test positive, give mandatory HIV antibody tests to people who are charged with sex offenses, require insurance companies to disclose HIV test results to applicants required to take such tests, and require adoption agencies to inform prospective parents of the HIV status of children being considered adoption.

In addition, the bill calls for establishing a national HIV reporting system under the control of the U.S. Centers for Disease and Prevention and for withholding federal Medicaid funds to states that don't comply with its provisions.

Members of both the Senate and House have introduced bills somewhat similar Coburn's nearly every year since the middle 1980s, and none have passed. But Gay and AIDS activists said they are worried that this year's Republican-controlled Congress might enact at least some of the provisions of Coburn's bill, which has 71 co-sponsors. And the bill has been endorsed by the American Medical Association, a development that has alarmed many AIDS activists.

"In reality, none of the provisions ... have anything to do with preventing the spread of HIV," said Aimee Berenson, an official with AIDS Action Council, a national group representing organizations which provide AIDS-related services. "The only way to prevent people from becoming infected with HIV is to provide them with straightforward information about how HIV is transmitted and how they can modify behavior that may put them at risk."

AIDS Action and other AIDS and Gay groups said they have and continue to encourage persons at risk for HIV to get tested, but the groups say testing must be voluntary.

Mike Shriver, director of public policy for the National Association of People With AIDS, said government data showing a decline in the number of AIDS deaths in the United States proves that "targeted and well-funded HIV prevention programs can and do work."

Coburn, a medical doctor, said prevention and treatment programs would work better if state health officials treated AIDS like other sexually transmitted diseases, where mandatory reporting and contact tracing is routine.

"This bill would refocus public health efforts on HIV prevention by implementing proven techniques designed to curtail communicable disease," Coburn said in a March 13 statement. "It would also protect those who are not infected from inadvertent or intentional transmission of HIV."

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