What's happening
This bill requires immediate contact tracing for all reported AIDS or HIV cases, with provisions to protect individuals’ identities and prevent harm during notification.
Why it matters
Mandates immediate and automatic contact tracing. for every reported AIDS or HIV case, shifting from previous law that allowed health officials to use discretion, which could lead to broader or more consistent outreach to potentially exposed individuals.
Empowers health officials to use “any means necessary” to notify contacts,. potentially expanding the ways in which people can be reached (e.g., phone, electronic communication, home visits), and possibly raising privacy, ethical, or logistical questions about notification methods.
Strengthens privacy and protection for those involved. by explicitly prohibiting disclosure of the identity of the infected individual or other contacts, and adding new language that bans notification methods that could be “damaging” to the contact, aiming to reduce stigma, discrimination, or unintended harm.
Could impact public trust and willingness to report or seek care. if individuals feel reassured by stronger privacy protections, but may also raise concerns for those wary of expanded government intervention or unclear definitions about what constitutes “damage” in notification.
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Who cares
State Department of Health
The bill would require the department to conduct contact tracing whenever a case of AIDS, HIV-related illness or HIV infection is reported to the commissioner, replacing case-by-case determinations of whether tracing is warranted.
Municipal health commissioners and district health officers
They or their qualified representatives would carry out required notifications of known contacts by any means necessary, consistent with existing protocols.
People with AIDS, HIV-related illness or HIV infection
Required contact tracing would apply to their reported cases, while the prohibition on disclosing their identity during contact notification would remain.
Contacts identified during investigations
The bill would prohibit physicians and public health officers from notifying them in a manner that could be deemed damaging to them.
Headline styles
Mandate HIV Contact Tracing
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to health
- Referred to health
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
7813
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
May 16, 2017
Introduced by M. of A. BICHOTTE -- read once and referred to the Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to contact tracing of cases of AIDS, HIV related illness or HIV infection
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivisions 1 and 3 of section 2133 of the public health law, as added by chapter 163 of the laws of 1998, are amended to read as follows:
1. [Every municipal health commissioner or the department's district health officer, upon determination that such reported case or, any other known case of HIV infection merits contact tracing in order to protect the public health,] Upon a case of AIDS, HIV related illness or HIV infection being reported to the commissioner, the department shall conduct contact tracing in order to protect the public health through the use of municipal health commissioners or the department's district health officers who will personally or through their qualified representatives notify the known contacts of the protected individual by any means necessary. Such contact tracing shall be done consistent with protocols developed pursuant to section twenty-one hundred thirty-seven of this title.
3. In notifying any contact identified in the course of any investigation conducted pursuant to this section, the physician or public health officer shall not disclose the identity of the protected individual or the [identify] identity of any other contact. In notifying any contact identified in the course of any investigation conducted pursuant to this section, the physician or public health officer shall not inform the contact in a manner that could be deemed damaging to the contact.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11407-01-7
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.