Kansas Equality Coalition succeeds in getting 'quarantine' bill modified

Special to the Gayly

This week, Kansas Equality Coalition (KEC) was successful in getting HB2183 sent to a House / Senate conference committee, where our concerns over removing the current HIV/AIDS quarantine exemption were once again discussed. That conference committee met twice yesterday, and proposed a compromise that both we and KDHE have found acceptable.

House Bill 2183 started as a bill that would make it easier for first responders to find out if they had been exposed to HIV, hepatitis, and other blood-borne diseases. The bill was “gutted, and replaced with the language KDHE wanted. Most significantly, the current law that exempts persons exposed to or suffering from HIV/AIDS from quarantine is being repealed.

The bill currently says:

"The secretary of health and environment is authorized to issue such orders and adopt rules and regulations as may be necessary to prevent the spread and dissemination of diseases injurious to the public health, including, but not limited to, providing for the testing for such diseases and the isolation and quarantine of persons afflicted with or exposed to such diseases."

The compromise language will include the phrase "medically necessary and reasonable" in the rules and regulations directive. After consultation with our allies at the ACLU and in the legislature, we believe this is acceptable, in that it will place a higher hurdle to issuing any quarantine order than is in the current language. Since even KDHE publicly concedes there is never a "medically necessary" reason to quarantine someone with HIV, local health officials will not be able to get away with using the new law to justify harassment of people living with HIV/AIDS.

This is not perfect - no compromise ever is. We would rather see the specific HIV exemption preserved in law. However, given the extremely conservative tilt of our current state government, this is the closest we are going to get to ensuring people are treated fairly.

Between now and the end of the year, KDHE will be drafting the new rules and regulations mandated by this statute. KEC will be an active participant in that drafting process. We will work to ensure that the "medically necessary" provision is fully implemented, and written in a way that protects the rights of people living with HIV.

In the meantime - please continue to contact your state representatives and senators. Instead of emailing out the contact list again, please get the list of Senators and House members from our last two action alerts on this bill.

For Senators: http://kansasequalitycoalition.org/viewevent.php?e=4751

For House members:http://kansasequalitycoalition.org/viewevent.php?e=4764

They all went home yesterday for Easter weekend, so use their home email and telephone contact information. Ask them to preserve the HIV/AIDS quarantine exemption that's in current law.

Thanks for all your help!