The California
assembly's health committee on Tuesday approved a
bill that would switch HIV reporting in the state from
a codes-based system to recording the cases by name.
The bill has already cleared the state senate by a
unanimous vote, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he
will sign it if also approved by the assembly, the San
Francisco Chronicle reports.
California's current codes-based HIV reporting
system, launched in 2002, uses alphanumeric codes
instead of HIV patients' names to track the
disease in the state. But the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention considers codes-based systems to be
inaccurate and will later this year begin tying AIDS
grants to data from names-based reporting systems.
California could lose up to $50 million in federal AIDS
funds if it does not switch to a names-based system.
The bill,
introduced by state senator Nell Soto, a Democrat, would
give Schwarzenegger's administration up to one
year to create the framework for the names-based HIV
reporting system. It also creates penalties for anyone
who discloses the confidential patient information recorded
by patient name.
The full assembly
is expected to approve the bill before the end of the
month. (Advocate.com)
