Change HIV law to allow broad testing

THE ISSUE The federal government is recommending that all teenagers and most adults be tested for the AIDS virus.

STATE laws that reflected a time when AIDS carried a social stigma should be revised to make way for a comprehensive HIV testing program recommended by the federal government. Hawaii has such a law, enacted during the 1980s, and it should be altered in the Legislature's upcoming session.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that everyone 13 to 64 be tested at least once for HIV and those with high-risk behavior be tested annually. When laws in Hawaii, New York and other states were enacted during the early days of the AIDS epidemic, many people avoided being tested because of their fear of being stigmatized.

Hawaii's law states that a person may not be tested for HIV without his or her informed written consent. Also, anyone subject to a test is required to be afforded counseling. A law that was intended to protect privacy has become a hindrance in trying to contain the disease.

About 40,000 Americans become infected each year, and many are teenagers infected by heterosexual sex. The agency estimates that 1 million Americans have the disease, and that one-fourth of those don't know they are infected.

San Francisco's public medical clinics and hospitals changed their policy four months ago, dropping its requirement of written consent and counseling sessions for HIV tests. Under the old policy, patients who had been screened and tested for various conditions had not been tested at the same time for HIV.

"The several layers of paperwork, the required counseling for HIV testing, they were actually a barrier," physician Jeffrey Klausner of the city Department of Public Health told the San Francisco Chronicle. Ideally, patients should be informed and, if they wish, counseled about HIV testing, but the paperwork should be eliminated.