Doctors and health advocates are seeing progress in a long-running effort to eliminate Ohio laws that they say inappropriately target people with HIV.
The regulations, many of which were created in the 1990s, need reform as HIV science and treatment evolve, according to members of the Ohio Health Modernization Movement, a coalition that has been working on the update for years. laws. According to the group, current legislation is not only based on old-fashioned science, but also deepens the stigma surrounding the disease.
“People are actually losing their humanity because these are people who sometimes have no control over their situation,” said Nate Albright, an infectious disease nurse practitioner, predoctoral fellow at The Ohio State University and director of -large for the Nursing Care Association over AIDS.
Albright said people also lose sight of the discriminatory aspects of HIV diagnosis laws. In a paper he wrote for the Center for HIV Law and Policy, he found that black Ohioans made up 44% of those arrested on “HIV-related crime charges,” even though they made up only 13% of the state’s total population.
Report from Equality Ohio Educational Fund and OHMM found that between 2014 and 2020, there were at least 214 HIV-related criminal prosecutions in Ohio, with 56% of the cases charged under the state’s “corporal harassment” law and 36% under the “corporal harassment” law. criminal assaults. The report found that no criminal prosecutions were reported under the state’s blood donation law.
That report also found “significant racial disparities among people charged under HIV criminalization laws compared to the general population.”
“The disparate enforcement and impacts of fees under these laws indicate an urgent need to modernize these laws to reflect accurate science regarding the routes and risks of HIV transmission,” researchers said in the study.
Evolving science
When Albright was juvenile, he saw a family member eating from a cheese plate, and because this family member was known to be HIV positive, Albright was advised to avoid sharing food from the same plate.
“It was a fear that is not supported by evidence or science,” he said.
Ohio’s current laws are driven by the same concerns, advocates say, so reform must be based on the latest science, which includes treatments that can make HIV undetectable and significantly reduce the risk of transmission.
It wasn’t until the mid-1990s that the medical community recognized the need to combine drugs into a “cocktail” to reduce the amount of HIV in the human body, but since then drugs have been developed that are safer, more effective and easier, according to Dr. Carl Fichtenbaum, professor of infectious diseases at the University of Cincinnati Medical School and president of the Infectious Diseases Society of Ohio.
“We have over 50 different drugs approved by the FDA since 1987.” Fichtenbaum told the Capital Journal. “We have shown that when treated effectively, it does not cause HIV to be transmitted to another person.”
HIV testing can be done at no or no cost at: public health and other medical facilities throughout Ohio.
Outdated regulations cause people to hesitate to undergo tests or treatment.
“If you call an infection a crime, obviously people will feel stigmatized or concerned,” Fichtenbaum said.
According to Fichtenbaum, the fact that the world has recently dealt with the Covid-19 virus should be an example of how to apply science, not law, to solve health problems.
“It’s one thing to say we should quarantine someone for a period of time, it’s another thing to lock them up or force them to pay a price,” he said.
Legislative reforms
Two Republican-led bills have been introduced to change criminal definitions for people with HIV and eliminate penalties for people who try to donate blood or plasma and may be infected with HIV.
House Bill 498 and House Bill 513 were recently introduced with the support of OHMM.
HB 498 “would remove the crime of donating blood when the donor is a carrier of the virus that causes AIDS,” according to the bill’s wording. Tracy Jones, executive director of the Greater Cleveland County AIDS Task Force, expressed support for the bill and said the current law “serves no practical purpose in protecting the blood supply because every donation is rigorously screened for HIV “.
The change in law will not change the process of accepting blood donors or affect the blood supply. After blood donation, blood samples are collected and screened for pathogens, and any blood containing these pathogens, such as HIV or hepatitis B and C, is removed from the supply.
HB513 is broader and includes changes to criminal definitions, along with screening processes and HIV testing requirements.
Some of the changes made in the more than 400-page bill include changing the definition of “conduct that creates a significant risk of transmitting HIV” to “vaginal intercourse, anal intercourse, or sharing a hypodermic needle or syringe in a way that poses a significant risk of transmitting HIV.”
The bill would also remove a requirement from the portion of Ohio’s HIV test or diagnosis disclosure law that a person who receives a positive HIV test result or AIDS diagnosis “discloses that information to any other person with whom the person intends to have sex.” apply a hypodermic needle or engage in sexual activity.”
Language would be removed for felony charges of “engaging in solicitation after a positive HIV test,” “loitering to solicit after a positive HIV test,” and “engaging in prostitution after a positive HIV test.”
With Republican support, the bills have a better chance of succeeding among the GOP majority, which consists of the Ohio House and Senate. Both bills have been referred to the House Criminal Justice Committee for public hearings.
