Health professionals will be required to report details, but not identities, of people diagnosed with HIV and health authorities will be given “enhanced tools” to manage people with HIV and other infectious diseases who put other people at risk, if a bill introduced to Parliament today goes ahead. Under the amendments to the Health Act included in the bill are making HIV a notifiable disease and enabling court orders which would require an infected person to take appropriate steps to limit the disease spread. Currently AIDS, the health condition which HIV can lead to, is notifiable but not HIV infection itself. The bill has been in preparation for some years and HIV prevention, support and advocacy organisations were extensively canvassed on its provisions as far back as 2007. The New Zealand AIDS Foundation has been historically supportive of the move on the grounds that it would provide more accurate and extensive collection of information to enable statistical trends to be observed. This would create a more accurate picture of the drivers of the on-going epidemic which would assist in developing appropriate HIV prevention strategies. Currently a looser system of reporting encourages those overseeing HIV testing to report little more than the fact that an HIV diagnosis has occurred and some indication - not always accurately detailed by patients - on the method of infection such as sexual contact or injecting drug use. Body Positive, which represents many of the gay and bisexual men infected with the virus, was initially concerned about maintaining confidentiality of newly-diagnosed people with HIV but it was explained that the existing confidentiality provisions surrounding AIDS notifications would be carried over into HIV notification. A initial reading of the bill suggests that this has been provided for. Making HIV a notifiable disease also sees it covered by Health Act provisions under which health authorities can intervene with greater powers if a person with an infectious disease is not taking sufficient steps to prevent onward transmission to others. The formal process of contact tracing, whereby those who may have been unwittingly infected can be tracked down a dn advise of their situation, will now apply to HIV. Gonorrhoea and syphilis infections will similarly be added to the list of notifiable diseases if the bill passes. Associate Health Minister Jo Goodhew describes the bill as containing "practical and workable measures that build on the fantastic work already done by health professionals and other agencies."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 31st July 2014 - 8:28pm