NCJ Number
118220
Journal
Missouri Law Review Volume: 53 Issue: 4 Dated: (Fall 1988) Pages: 599-644
Date Published
1988
Length
46 pages
Annotation
Features of Missouri's AIDS legislation encompass HIV testing and the confidentiality of test results, antidiscrimination, education, insurer regulation, criminal prohibitions, and nuisance abatement.
Abstract
The legislation specifically requires that all physicians, hospitals, or other persons who perform or conduct HIV blood testing report to the Department of Health the identity of any individual confirmed to be infected with the AIDS virus. It also requires that individuals delivered to the Department of Corrections and Human Resources and individuals released or discharged from institutions operated by that Department undergo mandatory HIV testing. Further, the legislation broadly declares confidentiality of test results and prohibits disclosure of all information held by any person concerning an individual's HIV infection status. A broad directive is included in the legislation requiring the Department of Health and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to devise educational programs on the transmission, prevention, and treatment of AIDS. The legislation makes it a crime to deliberately create a grave and unjustifiable risk of infecting another with the AIDS virus through sexual or other contact, and it gives the Department of Health the power to declare certain locations to be nuisances if the locations are used for activities that might spread the AIDS virus. The statute is appended. 158 references.