Check Your HIV Status For You, Sir/Madame?

This is a question that you may expect to hear from your doctor during your next check up if a new proposal by health commissioner Thomas Frieden and state assembly member Darryl Towns passes. A NY State law passed in the 1980s that required patients to provide permission or "informed consent" before they were tested for HIV may be replaced by new CDC recommendations that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 should undergo HIV testing as part of routine medical care.

The original permission form, so to speak, explained the nature of the test as well as the patient's rights, including the right to not have the test performed. The original law also required that once a New Yorker agreed to testing, they would receive an "explanation of the nature of AIDS- and HIV-related illness, information about discrimination problems that disclosure of the test result could cause and legal protections against such discrimination, and information about behavior known to pose risks for transmission and contraction of HIV infection." Further, if a patient tested positive, the law required that they would either receive counseling or a referral for counseling for the impending emotional effects and potential discrimination that may come with the diagnosis.

Frieden has been working on changing the New York State law to agree with the CDC recs for over a year, suggesting that the informed consent process is just another obstacle that keeps patients from being promptly diagnosed and treated. This is in contrast to concerns voiced by physicians who feel the current red tape forces them to take the time and properly counsel their patients and address their concerns.

Do you think that HIV testing should be part of your regular check up?

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Kapil Desai in News on January 4, 2007 1:58 PM

Comments [rss]

Concern NYer

Dr Frieden is genius and his commonsense approach has seen the demise of TB epidemic in early '90s. Now his fight to curb HIV epidemic must be lauded by all. HIV kills, TB fills, Diabetes kills, several diseases kill etc...Doctors are able to decide the test needed to diagnose all these disease except HIV...Why? Early identification and prompt treatment is the key to eradification of any disease. Let's follow Frieden Steps.

mph

NoTime, the short times people have with doctors are far more a function of greedy insurance companies limiting appointment times than the doctors themselves.

As a public health professional, I think this is a great idea. Testing for HIV should be as routine as testing cholesterol levels or getting a pap smear.

anonymass

Nice in theory, but given current erosions of privacy, I'm wary that this will all be compiled in a giant database and used for nefarious insurance company behavior.

NoTimeForYou

"This is in contrast to concerns voiced by physicians who feel the current red tape forces them to take the time and properly counsel their patients and address their concerns."

Oh Boy! poor doctors will actually have to do their job properly and use the lost art of communication with a patient and inform them properly, instead of just pushing patients through and dispensing meds.

The horror. It takes time...

Doctors are some of the greediest people I have ever met.

ja

I wonder if the blood test labs are behind this.

J to the D

Best idea I've heard all day.

good old public health!

Absolutely! When it becomes mainstream to "know your status, everyone will do it. Frieden is just applying basic public health logic in approaching seemingly complex issues like smoking and transfats. And it works. Keep up the good work Tom!