RWGNYC's Blog

By Charles King Monday, April 10, 2006
On March 6, the New York Blade published an Op-Ed piece by NYC Department of Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden, titled "We Can Stop the HIV Epidemic."
We share Commissioner Frieden’s concern about the two critical issues:
• Too many New Yorkers are unaware that they are HIV-positive, including more than 1,000 people who learn their HIV status each year when they are diagnosed with an AIDS-defining condition.
• People living in lower income areas of the city, primarily people of color, are receiving substandard care or are not engaged in care and, consequently, die at much higher rates than those who are engaged in quality care.
Commissioner Frieden proposes two changes to New York State law to address these issues. As a first step he would eliminate the requirement of mandatory pre-test counseling and signed consent for an HIV test, which he claims is the major barrier to routinized testing in medical settings. The second step, he says in his article and has told people with AIDS, service providers and lawmakers, is to allow the health department to contact doctors and their patients to improve care.
Housing Works obtained a copy of Frieden’s proposed legislation, and it is far broader and more dangerous than advertised.

The rest can be found at the link (click on the Headline).

Unfortunately, the pre-counseling is not the big issue... since if there is a positive result counseling will initiated... the rest is the bigger problem since a consent form will be eliminated... Remember another study we talked about?