Serious Chat: HIV Epidemic
 

I was listening on the radio this afternoon and heard that Atlanta leads the nation right now in all newly reported HIV cases @ 74%.

Worse was hearing how some people have friends who are finding out that they are infected and rather get treated, they are sleepign with others in hopes of spreading the disease to others.

Now....here is a catch to this...a person called in to the show and wants to know how to stop someone that she knows who is doing this but was told by the CDC when she called that they cannot do anything because it would violate that person's privacy under HIPPA

Question: If you found out that someone you knew was going around trying to spread thier disease to others, what would you do?

74% of what? Are you saying that 74% of all AIDS cases reported in the country are in Atlanta, or that 74% of AIDS cases in Atlanta are newly reported?


And I don't know what I'd do if I knew someone like that, but I know what I WOULDN'T do.:p;)

Okay, I now understand that some people have Pox Parties to spread Chicken Pox around, but purposefully sleeping with people to spread HIV? That is wack (to paraphrase Whitney Houston).

Depending on the jurisdiction, I'd tell the cops. That is a matter of potential death, and they can be charged with attempted murder. Screw HIPPA. I think it's more important to save lives than protect some idiot's privacy.

This sounds like typically uninformed inflammatory talk radio shenanigans - I'm not sure I've heard any reputable source discuss this as a 'trend' outside of anything but a VERY small niche portion of the gay community, and even there it is more of a fetish than a reality (here is a pretty poor Wikipedia entry about this particular phenomenon, albeit mostly directed on the 'receiving' side).

While some may be actively trying to infect others for some sort of personal pleasure, most are probably not actively seeking to infect - rather, limited cases (such as this one in Iowa a while back) indicate that the scenario is likely something done out of shame, and not necessarily malice or whatever. I've never really seen much in the way of proof indicating a sort of 'sociopathic' bent to spreading the disease, and it seems somewhat far-fetched to discuss this as a 'trend' even as HIV/AIDS numbers are dropping in the USA (and worldwide).

However, if you live in a state that has laws about criminal transmission of HIV you should most certainly call the police - there is certainly a moral obligation to inform partners of your status, and there may be a legal obligation as well.

In any case, though, even these extremely slight corner-case percentages underscore why it's important to take control of your own personal health whenever you have sex.

First let me say i totally agree with you. However, to be charged with "attempted murder" implies that giving someone HIV means you have intent to kill them. there are many illnesses and diseases that can kill you - from as serious as the virus to as "simple" as a common cold (which, like HIV, can progress into a bigger more hazardous illness).

so if someone sneezes on me, do i call the cops?

also, if an HIV-positive woman gives birth, do you charge her? she is, in a sense, intentionally (and potentially) passing the virus onto her child. likewise, that child is unknowingly being infected outside their control.

These points are all well taken, but they are accounted for under existing HIV transmission statutes - it's not "attempted murder", it's simply criminalized behavior in that it's illegal to knowingly hide your HIV status in many states while engaging in behavior you know can transfer the virus. It's as simple as that - passing it onto your child is not a decision, per se, so that's not a strong argument against the laws.

There are some privacy issues with HIV transmission laws (the links I gave earlier go through them), and some difficulty prosecuting if you can't verify medical tests or records, but the risks and ability to pass the virus should be considered well-known to any reasonable adult with the virus. I have no problem with these kinds of laws for that reason - comparisons to the common cold are incredibly faulty, because this is really the only disease that is both fatal, and transmitted to another both easily and without their knowledge.

It would certainly be illegal to inject someone with any other sort of agent that would cause eventual death, or crippling disease - that is, for lack of a better term, essentially what is happening in these cases. I just don't see analogous situations arising from your points. It's not really a fine line or slippery slope thing - this is really one of a kind.

I've heard it's actually illegal to have sex with an unknowing partner when you have AIDS or HIV.

Holy crap - seriously, Phildizzle?

It's pretty easy to find out if you're a state that has this law . . . life on the Internet is not that hard.

ok fair assessment. making a common cold analogous to HIV is pretty far-fetched - i was trying to make a simple comparison which didnt work out so well. i do hear all that you're saying. im just wondering if similar laws exist for people who pass on life-threatening diseases knowingly.

and another thing - couldnt someone legitimately testify that they didnt know their status if its invasion of privacy (or whatever the legal issue behind it) to find out if someone's been tested (or find out someone's status)? i'm asking this based on the OP's comment on the radio caller, CDC and HIPPA.

p.s. going around spreading HIV because you're bitter that you've contracted it is LAME, to say the least.

I heard about Atlanta and it isn't shocking...

What would I do if I knew someone was having unprotected sex and he or she had HIV that was totally untreated?

To answer that question, if that is your question:

There would be nothing I could do. Warning the other party probably won't work...

like AKAMonet said, what COULD you do? you could go around telling people "ooh watch ya back," but umm, people are gonna sleep with who they sleep with. i know that sounds really apathetic, but this epidemic has grown so out of our control...

it would make for a good psychological thriller. Saw 5 anyone?

My point is that there really aren't any other analogous diseases, to be honest.

HIPAA doesn't get around the court system - the courts can have that information produced, and it's not really difficult. HIPAA protects individuals against employers, neighbors, newspapers and the like - not against prosecution. I've already discussed exactly the issues you bring up, just very succinctly - the individual can claim they didn't know, but I'll assume their doctors will have made a note somewhere. Your medical records are available, even if you perjure yourself w/re: to medical treatment. This is actually a good thing, I promise.

You could testify, and it might cause a problem - or I might show up with your complete medical history, including doctor's notes indicating you were told about your HIV status. What then?

Also, sorry for the double post, but AIDS is NOT out of control - in fact, it is very much in control, new infections are decreasing to the point where AIDS awareness organizations are outright lying about the numbers, and medications are (so far) doing well in controlling HIV->AIDS movement.

Just saying.

It is out of control still in the African American community. My theory is that kids are having sex at a younger ages, such at 9/10 years old, that invincibility mentality and that need to solve their problems by being physicality and sexuality when their minds are still developing. There is a positive correlation between young ignorance of STI's and education. There are still kids who think that babies come from the stork...

The meds do protect the transition of HIV infection to full blown AIDS. But that doesn't mean squat if one cannot get those drugs or chooses not to take them, thereby increasing their viral loads of HIV and concomitant opportunistic infections--some being the bacterial that are antibiotic resistant kind...

And that's IRL...