HIV Crime

Today we had a criminal in our clinic. We treated her as well as we could and let her go.

She is an HIV positive patient, as all of the patients I am seeing for study I am involved in are. I did a pregnancy test for her – she was pregnant. The OB doctor then spoke with at length. Turns out she has a boyfriend of two years that she lives with. She has HIV and knows it. Her boyfriend has no idea she has it, nor does she plan on ever telling him. In the US this is criminal behavior:

http://www.thebody.com/hivmonth/thismonth1007.html

I was fired up about clinic after seeing her. I spoke “through” the OB doc about how he would need to know as she had the child because the child was going to need very special treatment. It would be a full effort to see to it that the risk for transmission to the child was as low as possible, which would entail a few drug cocktails for the child. And despite most births in Haiti taking place outside the hospital, this one needed to be in the hospital for the child’s sake. I asked the OB doc to explain to her how important this is for her child – if she wants the best for her child. It was sad. And interesting.

One interesting question that came out of this is how this plays out legally. You will only get prosecuted if you knowingly gave someone HIV. This means you have to be tested. Thus, we now have an incentive for people to NOT get tested, especially if they are engaging in high-risk behavior as part of their job (sex workers).

If nothing else this made me interested in clinic again…This presented as a challenge. And what should the law be? Hard to say.