The Miami Herald, Inc.; Sunday, July 6, 1997
Herald Staff

The policy is a good one. It will help health workers find people who have had sexual relations with an infected person. In turn, it will encourage them to get tested, too. This could stem the virus's spread.

Unfortunately, the new policy also stands to scare the already-fearful and wary into not seeking help. The state Health Department must go to great lengths both to educate residents and vigilantly to protect their privacy.

Many people remember that just last fall, health-department records with the names of 4,000 people with AIDS in the Tampa Bay area were stolen and disseminated.

Sadly, in some quarters a person with HIV or AIDS still can be wrongly denied a job or a place to live. The theft was a wake-up call that led the Health Department to strengthen safeguards against leaks, including using encrypted computer information. Good. The department cannot risk hurting the very people whom it wants to help.

Reporting the names of HIV patients has an ominous, Big Brother ring. However, it already is done with other sexually transmitted diseases, so AIDS isn't being singled out.

Under the new policy, the patient remains in control. Here's how: Anyone who seeks HIV testing at a public-health clinic will choose whether to be tested "anonymously" or "confidentially."

Someone who chooses anonymous testing will be assigned an identification number -- without having to reveal a name. Test results are labeled by that number. If the patient has HIV and opts for care at the public-health clinic, only then must the patient reveal his or her name. But it will not be reported to the state.

If the patient who chooses confidential testing is HIV-positive, the name is reported. The patient gets counseling and medical help, if wanted. And health-care workers offer to alert any sexual partners. But "if the patient won't give us information, that's it," says Dr. George Metellus, of Dade's Health Department. "We won't contact them unless the patient gives the say-so."

Private doctors, too, must report the names of HIV-positive patients to the Health Department. But public-health workers will not contact those patients without the doctor's permission.

Despite medical strides that have tempered the effects of HIV, AIDS continues to ravage large segments of South Florida. The state's HIV-reporting plan is a sound policy that makes public health a priority.

The new plan must be implemented sensitively, and with vigorous security, so that patients want to cooperate, not withhold important information that can spare so many lives.

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Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 1997. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

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