Gay Doctors Warn Against HIV Names Reporting

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Sue Rochman Communications Director Gay and Lesbian Medical Association 415-255-4547

Gay Doctors Warn Against HIV Names Reporting Physicians Fear Mandatory Reporting Will Impair Patient Care

SAN FRANCISCO (Nov. 12, 1997) -- Concerned that named HIV reporting is a dangerous medical path that would be detrimental to testing and treatment efforts, the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, a San Francisco-based national medical organization, today announced its strong opposition to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's plan to urge states to begin requiring physicians to report the names of people infected with HIV.

"HIV discrimination is, unfortunately, still quite common, and the CDC's proposal could result in fewer at-risk persons coming forward for HIV screening," said GLMA board member and nationally recognized HIV expert Ken Mayer, MD, director of the Brown University AIDS Program. "We are concerned that the CDC is encouraging the creation of this type of surveillance system at a time when medical advances have made it even more critical for people to feel comfortable being tested and coming in for treatment as early as possible."

GLMA's warning is prompted by a resolution adopted by the association's Board of Directors calling for caution in the implementation of any HIV surveillance system and urging the CDC to more aggressively study methods of protecting patient confidentiality.

GLMA agrees that improving the CDC's HIV surveillance methods is necessary to more accurately track the HIV/AIDS epidemic and more effectively target prevention services. But if these changes include named HIV reporting, GLMA warns, the CDC's decision could be detrimental to the health of many women and men and could severely compromise the doctor-patient relationship. The resolution also calls on the CDC to expand its use of anonymous population-based studies, to require all states to offer anonymous testing programs (10 states currently prohibit anonymous testing), and underscores GLMA's strenuous rejection of any plan to link HIV surveillance with any other public health effort of disease control, such as partner notification.

To emphasize GLMA's concerns, GLMA Director of Public Policy Marj Plumb recently met with John Ward, MD, Chief of the HIV/AIDS Surveillance Branch of the CDC's Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, to explain the association's position and to encourage the CDC to pursue other surveillance methods.

"The CDC is in the business of health, but this plan could cause harm by driving the epidemic further underground, denying patients the benefits of early therapy," said GLMA Board President Michael Horberg, MD, a San Francisco Bay Area internist who specializes in HIV. "We will continue to meet with the CDC and others to emphasize the public health dangers of promoting named HIV reporting and to highlight alternative solutions that will help communities get the types of prevention services they need."

(Full text of GLMA resolution available from the GLMA Communications Dept.)

The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association is an organization of nearly 2,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered physicians, medical students, and their supporters in all 50 states and 12 countries. Founded in 1981, GLMA works to combat homophobia within the medical profession and in society at large and to promote quality health care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered patients.