Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Miami Herald - Tuesday, July 28, 1998
Peggy Rogers, Herald Staff Writer
Under all but the most dramatic of circumstances, carrying the AIDS virus is no one's business but the patient's.
And it is illegal for anyone to force its disclosure.
If a 15-year-old student's allegations prove true, said Allen R. Grossman, an assistant Florida attorney general, "I have never heard of any situation like that.
"Even with the rare exceptions that are built into the law about compelling need to know and community safety, for anyone to take a child and force them to disclose their HIV status publicly -- it's just beyond the realm to me," said Grossman, attorney for Florida's Board of Medicine.
Florida law "prohibits any person, not just a health care provider, who has knowledge of an HIV test result from disclosing or being compelled to disclose" the identity of the person tested or the test results.
That means that a student with HIV cannot be prompted to tell his or her infection status. To anyone.
The law goes even further: It "prohibits any person with knowledge of an HIV test result" from passing it on to anyone else.
Whether the information is appropriately or inappropriately passed, the burden is on recipients not to further spread the word. By law, they should be told: "The information has been disclosed to you from records whose confidentiality is protected by state law.
"State law prohibits you from making any further disclosure of such information without the specific written consent of the person [who has HIV]."
The confidentiality rules surrounding AIDS are more stringent than those covering just about any other medical condition. Even if the patient grants general permission for someone to view his medical files, the AIDS portion of the medical record is exempt from view unless the patient specifically states that it is included.
"I can't think of any laws that allow schools to publicly announce or force someone to publicly announce their HIV status," Grossman said. "In fact, that would seem to me to be a blatant violation of the law."
Copyright © 1998 - Miami Herald. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Miami Herald, Permissions, One Herald Plaza, Miami, FL 33132-1693 TEL: (305) 376-3719. http://www.herald.com.
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Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 1998. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
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