List of HIV Patients Accidentally E-Mailed
A confidential list of 4,500 southeast Florida residents with AIDS and 2,000 others who are HIV positive was inadvertently e-mailed to more than 800 Palm Beach County health workers, officials said.
John W. “Jack” Nolan, who compiles data on HIV/AIDS for the county health department, was sending county employees a monthly statistics report Thursday when he accidentally attached a file listing the names and addresses of HIV/AIDS patients, according to Tim O’Connor, a department spokesman.
Nolan realized his mistake within minutes and contacted the department’s computer specialists. Technicians removed all copies of the e-mail from the system. “It appears to our information technology staff that only 10 people opened the e-mail,” O’Connor said.
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