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HIV patient names to be tracked in all 50 states by year’s end

Associated Press April 01, 2007

The names of people infected with HIV will be tracked in all 50 states by the end of 2007, marking a victory for federal health officials and a quiet defeat for AIDS advocates who wanted to keep patients’ names out of state databases. Vermont, Maryland and Hawaii, the last states not tracking the names of HIV-positive people, are quickly moving toward adopting names-based surveillance. Eight other states and Washington, D.C., began collecting the names of HIV patients last year, and Massachusetts switched in January. The states are bowing to federal pressure so they will not lose money for medications and health services for patients. This is the first year federal funding has been tied to names-based surveillance of HIV. More than $1.4 billion (euro1.05 billion) in federal money will be distributed this fiscal year based on new formulas that include numbers of people with HIV counted by states using names. In some states, including Illinois, millions of dollars are at stake.