HIV Legal Check-up

Confidentiality and Discrimination

In general, people who test positive for HIV are under no obligation to tell other people.

HIV-related discrimination remains a very real problem. Many people, possibly including your employer, co-worker, landlord, neighbors, teachers, or even health-care providers are irrationally afraid of even casual contact with someone who has HIV. Their fear can cause you and those close to you to be denied a wide range of opportunities and services.

Before you disclose to anyone, you must carefully examine the possible consequences. You should determine what types of discrimination you may face and the likelihood that it will occur. Although much of this discrimination is illegal, the law does not always offer quick or effective protection. If you are unable or unwilling to deal with the discrimination you may face, you need to maintain the confidentiality of your HIV status. The simple rule is: DO NOT TELL ANYONE unless there is a strong reason why that person needs to know, and unless you are sure the information will go no further.

You will need to tell a doctor, but do not automatically go to your usual or family physician. You need a doctor with experience in treating HIV-infection and who understands the importance of true confidentiality. Your current doctor may have neither of these qualifications and may in fact be afraid of treating people with HIV. Your local AIDS service organization or the Statewide HIV/AIDS Hotline can refer you to a qualified physician. When first meeting with a doctor, you should discuss what HIV- related information will be put in your medical record and who will have access to it. Also, your doctor only needs to know that you are infected; you do not need to say when you found out you were infected. And when you go to fill prescriptions, if anyone asks what they are for, say they are what your doctor prescribed for you and leave it at that.

Be very careful in deciding to ell your employer or your co-workers. Many people who have expected a sympathetic response have instead been harassed or fired. Even employers who are not AIDS-phobic have tried to fire people with HIV in order to control health insurance costs, or because of fears about how customers would react.

If you miss work often or need to go on sick leave or disability, you will have to explain why. Check with an attorney to determine what information to provide your employer and when. If there are 15 or more employees at your job, the Americans with Disabilities Act provides some protections for people with HIV in most instances.

Louisiana law requires that you warn anyone before exposing them to HIV (infection is not necessary). If you expose someone, you can go to jail for 10 years at hard labor. The law has yet to define clearly what constitutes "exposure" to HIV in all situations.

However, to protect yourself from this charge, you should, at a minimum, inform partners of your status and strictly follow safer-sex guidelines. However, if you tell someone your HIV status in this context, he or she can tell other people, with all the consequences that entails. This is not an instance of libel or slander since the information is true, and you could only sue for an invasion of privacy, a much weaker case.

Generally, patients are entitled to confidentiality when they speak to health care professionals and social workers. However, social workers are permitted to make disclosures when patients reveal that they are contemplating a crime or harm to another person, and the other person is identified or easily identifiable. In that instance, social workers are permitted to warn the other person of the impending harm. So if you tell your social worker or case manager that you are going to expose someone to HIV without that person's knowledge and consent, the social worker has the right to tell the their person. In addition, a doctor can notify your past sexual contacts that they may have been exposed to HIV if he doctor believes that there is a significant risk of infection to the contact and the patient has been counseled about the need to disclose but has not done so. The doctor can only tell the contacts that they have been exposed, but not by whom. However, if your contact has had limited exposures, your confidentiality may be jeopardized by this information.

Other AIDSLaw Services

Personal and Estate Planning:
Last Will and Testament, Living Will Durable Medical Power of Attorney, durable General Power of Attorney, and Burial Instructions.

Simple Succession Matters:
Advice on steps to effectuate a deceased client's last Will and testament, or otherwise receive the client's property.

Family Law:
Standby guardianship, tutorships, non-legal custodian affidavits.

Notarial Services:
Income affidavits, viatical settlements of life insurance policies, and other notarial acts.

Debtor/creditor issues:
Advice, negotiations, reviewing loan and credit documents, preparing "creditor letters," providing information about federal and state collection laws, advice about bankruptcy options, assisting clients to obtain discharges of student loans due to client's disability.

Public Benefits:
Social Security proceedings, benefits and medical care from the US Veterans Administration and the VA Hospital.

Insurance:
Health, life and disability insurance.