Originally published December 18 2005
Feds force Illinois to adopt new tracking system for HIV cases
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Federal authorities have finally convinced Illinois to begin tracking HIV cases with the names of infected patients, rather than with patient codes, which was the state's old practice.
CHICAGO Bowing to federal pressure, Illinois will join 38 other states in January when it begins tracking HIV cases using infected patients' names, a move some worry will deter people from being tested and treated for the virus that causes AIDS.
The state risks losing millions of federal dollars if it doesn't drop its current system of tracking HIV infection using only patient identification codes, a system that doesn't meet federal standards.
Even with safeguards to protect confidentiality, the new system will discourage testing and treatment, said some HIV-infected residents.
The change in reporting is happening because state officials expect that starting in 2007 the federal government will add HIV data -- no longer AIDS cases alone -- to its complicated funding formula for divvying up money to states from its largest HIV/AIDS program.
Tracking HIV data would have to meet Centers for Disease Control and Prevention standards if the planned funding formula change happens, and that means only states with name-based tracking systems would get their cases counted.
The CDC has called on states to use name-based systems to avoid counting patients more than once, said CDC spokeswoman Jessica Frickey.
Illinois receives about $74.5 million a year from the largest federal program, the Ryan White CARE Act, which funds services for uninsured and low-income patients.
Tom Hughes, a deputy director with the Illinois Department of Public Health, said the state could lose several million dollars if it doesn't start tracking HIV by patients' names.
But a breach in Palm Beach County, Fla., this year has some advocates concerned.
In that incident, the names of 6,500 HIV carriers were mistakenly e-mailed to 800 county health workers.
It will take time to build the database with numbers that may drive future federal funding, said David Munar, associate director of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago.
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