What's happening
This bill requires immediate contact tracing for reported AIDS or HIV cases, with protections on identity and sensitive notification methods.
Why it matters
Mandates immediate action. The bill changes current law from allowing discretion in whether to conduct contact tracing for HIV/AIDS cases to requiring it automatically whenever a case is reported, potentially increasing the speed and scope of public health responses.
Expands methods for notification. By authorizing notification of contacts “by any means necessary,” the bill could allow for new or more flexible communication strategies, possibly improving the ability to reach exposed individuals quickly.
Strengthens privacy and sensitivity protections. The bill reiterates and expands protections so that neither the identity of the reported individual nor any contact is disclosed, and adds a new safeguard requiring notifications to be handled in ways that do not damage the contact, addressing concerns about stigma or emotional harm.
Potential impact on trust and cooperation. While aiming to enhance public health, the bill’s more aggressive tracing mandate may raise concerns among affected communities about privacy and the balance between effective disease control and individual rights, potentially influencing willingness to seek testing or treatment.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Expand 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
2357
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 22, 2019
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.
LBD00369-01-9
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.