State may drop HIV encoding

Next month, state health officials likely will finalize a temporary rule that will no longer allow the names of some HIV patients to be encoded for extra security.

Though the change has been protested by advocacy groups, if the state Board of Health does not pass it by June 14, the state will lose as much as $5 million in federal money for a range of services for about 2,000 low-income AIDS patients, including drugs, food, housing and transportation.

Officials at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said last summer that states must keep all HIV patients' names to allow better tracking of the epidemic.

Codes — used for people who tested positive for HIV but didn't have symptoms or full-blown AIDS — too often allow for mistakes, including duplicate reports when a patient moves to another state, the agency said.

At the same time, the CDC is also planning to issue new guidelines this summer calling for routine HIV testing of all patients ages 13 to 64 when other blood tests are given — not people most at risk for the disease.

About a quarter of the million Americans with HIV don't know they have it, the agency argues, so increased testing would help cut new infection, promote early treatment and perhaps reduce some of the stigma attached to the disease.

AIDS-patient advocates in Washington have protested all-name reporting, saying it will dissuade testing and increase the chances of breaches in confidentiality in a world in which AIDS still carries a huge stigma.

They cite a 2005 incident in which a Palm Beach County, Fla., public-health worker inadvertently e-mailed the names and addresses of 6,500 HIV-positive residents to 800 other department employees.

"They're holding us hostage with this," said Tina Podlodowski, director of the Seattle-based Lifelong AIDS Alliance, which receives some federal funding for low-income patients.

For about the past six years, as a compromise to advocacy groups, names of some people who tested positive for HIV were encoded by local health departments before being sent to the state Department of Health. AIDS patients have always been reported by name.

Besides the Lifelong AIDS Alliance, the Governor's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and Gay City Health Network, which promotes AIDS prevention, also have protested the new rule. But they are resigned to the change and they don't want the state to lose money for patients.

"People have to pick their battles, and we should not do this one," said Fred Swanson, director of Gay City. "It's a shame. A lot of effort was made in developing our system. Now the CDC is shoving theirs down our throats."

Warren King: 206-464-2247 or wking@seattletimes.com