Student HIV/AIDS bill passes the House

School nurses must notify the Department of Health and Environmental Control when any K-12 student gets into a fight, clashes with another student on the sports field or has any other contact with another person's blood.

Then, DHEC will let the nurse know if the student in question has HIV/AIDS, hepatitis or any other blood-borne illness and will advise what type of medical treatment is needed.

That's according to a compromised version of a senate bill the House approved Wednesday in a 97 to 0 vote. The bill eliminates the current state requirement that a school district superintendent and school nurse be given the name of any student in their district/at their school who tests positive for HIV/AIDS at any of the state's medical clinics or private doctor's offices.

Under the bill, clinics and doctor's offices will still alert DHEC of positive test results.

But the names of infected students will only be known to DHEC, not school nurses or superintendents. Only if the student is in a fight or comes into contact with another person's blood can the nurse call DHEC and find out if the student is infected.

Rep. Cathy Harvin, D-Clarendon, said the bill violates federal privacy laws regarding medical records while Rep. Kris Crawford, R-Florence, an emergency room doctor, said it did not. The amended bill now heads back to the Senate.

Comments

[h]

Everyone should use universal precautions all the time anyway, so the knowledge of HIV infection is moot. -h