Oregon to Follow New HIV Policy

The Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) plans to switch to a name-based HIV reporting system in order to preserve federal AIDS funds, which will soon be allocated based on name-based data. Currently, the state only keeps for 90 days the names of patients whose HIV cases are reported, after which names are replaced with anonymous codes.

In the future, federal HIV/AIDS funding will likely be based on HIV and AIDS data counted by CDC. But CDC will not accept HIV data unless reports are name-based, a method less likely than code-based systems to count cases more than once.

Without the switch to name-based reporting, Oregon could lose 30-40 percent of the $10 million it receives in annual federal AIDS treatment funds, said Dr. Mel Kohn, DHS epidemiologist. That proportion is the state's allocation of Ryan White CARE Act funding that helps buy AIDS treatment for hundreds of low-income patients in Oregon, Kohn said. The medicine costs $15,000-$20,000 per year, he added.

While Cascade AIDS Project officials declined to comment on the plan, CAP's former executive director, Thomas Bruner, said name-based reporting would probably not deter people from getting tested for HIV. When the state began tracking names for 90 days in 2001, he said, AIDS activists predicted testing would decline. But it did not, he noted.

Anonymous testing will remain available in Oregon for those who desire it, Kohn said. About 7 percent of the 104,000 HIV tests administered each year are anonymous, in which a number instead of name identifies a patient.

Public hearings on the plan will be held in March in Multnomah, Deschutes and Lane counties at times to be announced later by health officials. The switch to name-based reporting will be effective late March or early April. Since 1984, Oregon has tracked AIDS cases by name, and it has maintained a secure history of keeping identities confidential, said Kohn.

Back to other news for January 26, 2006