Against HIV Names Reporting

In the middle of an impassioned debate to jettison California's current method of HIV surveillance by code (known as the Unique Identifier system) for Mandatory Names Reporting that has been raging for months comes this story from the February 21 issue of the Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach, Florida (a state which has names reporting):

A highly confidential list of the names and
addresses of 4,500 Palm Beach County
residents with AIDS and 2,000 others who
are HIV positive was e-mailed Thursday to
more than 800 county health department
employees.

Health department statistician John W.
"Jack" Nolan, who compiles data on
HIV/AIDS cases for the county, sent the
e-mail containing his monthly cumulative
statistics report and inadvertently
attached a file with the identities and
addresses of AIDS patients and others
who have tested HIV positive. Health
department spokesman Tim O'Connor
confirmed the incident.

Gee, I don't suppose mistakenly e-mailing the names of the some 13 000 individuals in Los Angeles County whom the Department of Health has reported to be HIV positive would be a problem? It's not like there's anyone famous who lives in Los Angeles county who would not want their private health records publicized, right?

Many local AIDS Service Organizations such as AIDS Healthcare Foundation, AIDS Project Los Angeles and Minority AIDS Project have agreed with the County Board of Supervisors and their County Commission on HIV Health Services that the recently enacted (July 2002) HIV surveillance procedure should be switched to one that requires the names of those who test HIV positive also be included with the data reported to the State. In the interests of full disclosure, I volunteer for an organization which has taken a strong position against any switch to Names Reporting in the State of California. I agree with Being Alive's position for many reasons, but the most succinct reason was recently given by Terry Leftgoff: "We don't believe that privacy and civil rights should be trumped for bureaucratic convenience. Privacy and civil rights should always come first." The City of West Hollywood agrres; last night the City Council voted unaninmously to re-affirm their current position in opposition to mandatory HIV names reporting.