Should California Replace Code-Based HIV Reporting with a Name-Based System?

The names of people who have AIDS have been reported to the government since the earliest days of the epidemic. But for many years, states have debated whether and how to report individuals who are infected with HIV but do not have AIDS. The debate in California was renewed this year with the introduction of SB 945, legislation by State Senator Nell Soto (D-Pomona), which would replace California's current system of reporting individuals with HIV using a code with a system that would report individuals by name. Although SB 945 may not be approved by the State Legislature this year, similar legislation is likely to be taken up again in 2006. In 1999, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that all states create HIV reporting systems. Although it preferred that the states operate name-based systems, the CDC guidelines clearly allowed states to decide what kind of reporting system they wished to operate. Since that time, however, the CDC has refused to ...  more