Dannemeyer Says AMA’s Policy on AIDS Boosts His Legislation

The American Medical Assn.’s recent endorsement of a new reporting policy for those infected with the AIDS virus represents a “180-degree turn” and a strong boost for similar legislative proposals, Rep. William E. Dannemeyer said Thursday.

“It is gratifying to have as an ally in this struggle the voice of organized medicine in America, the American Medical Assn.,” said Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), who has introduced legislation making reporting mandatory. “AMA policy is now entirely consistent with the provisions of my own legislation,” he said at a Capitol Hill press conference.

At its annual convention in Hawaii last week, the AMA formally adopted a report that calls on states to adopt policies requiring physicians to report in confidence to public health agencies the names of patients who test positive for the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS.

In addition, the AMA said public health agencies should establish systems to trace the sexual or drug-using partners of those infected with HIV, just as they do for those infected with other sexually transmitted diseases.

Previous AMA policy had urged reliance on educational programs to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.

Mandatory reporting is still strongly opposed by many public health officials as well as gay-rights activists, who argue that the fear of discrimination drives underground those potential HIV carriers who are most in need of testing and treatment.

“The available studies on this question have indicated that reporting is a bad idea because it does, in fact, stop people from coming in for testing,” said Thomas B. Stoddard, executive director of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the nation’s largest gay and lesbian civil rights organization.

The shift in AMA policy, Stoddard said, represents the beginning of a disturbing split between medical doctors and public health officials. “The public health community by and large still believes that coercive and instrusive measures will be counterproductive,” he said.

As a result of the AMA’s action, Stoddard said Dannemeyer “can now beat his drum more loudly, but he is still wrong as a matter of policy.”

Dannemeyer last summer introduced in the House of Representatives a bill that would withhold federal funds from states that do not require clinics and doctors to confidentially report the names of HIV-positive patients to public health officials. The legislation also would require health authorities to identify and contact sexual partners of those reported to be infected.

The legislation has languished in the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s energy and environment subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), a liberal who has championed homosexual rights. A strong opponent of mandatory reporting, Waxman is almost certain to keep the Dannemeyer bill bottled up in committee.

However, Dannemeyer said the credibility that the AMA has brought to his views will make it easier for other members of Congress to support him if his proposals are ever brought before the House.

In one scenario, Dannemeyer said he might offer parts of his bill as amendments to AIDS legislation introduced in the Senate, where rules governing the amendment process are more liberal.