State health officials in Michigan have spent the past ten years secretly collecting personal information about those undergoing HIV testing.

The American Independent News Network discovered that the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) has, since 2003, compiled names, birth dates, risk categories, and other demographic information of people submitting for confidential HIV testing into a huge database.

Those identified as sexual and needle-sharing partners of persons living with HIV have been coded in the database. This has allowed prosecutors and other attorneys to identify defendants in both criminal and civil cases targeting those who may have spread HIV to others, according to a study authored by University of Michigan Ph.D. candidate Trevor Hoppe.

State officials told American Independent that it was necessary to collect and store the data originating from tests funded through federal grants.

As of June 2012, the HIV database contained 701,281 entries. Of those, 579,990 indicate HIV-negative test results, and 6,907 indicate infected individuals who are associated with a program that helps them contact current and past sexual and needle-sharing partners to alert them to possible exposure to the HIV virus.

MDCH reports that 785 people have access to all or part of the database system. All database information is stored indefinitely, and individuals have no way to remove their record, American Independent learned.

“It’s ironic that in its effort to try to prevent transmission of HIV as part of the HIV-testing process, this policy and practice will likely discourage people from being tested, because they fear criminal prosecution for having knowledge of their HIV status,” said Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan LGBT Project.

-Danny Biederman, Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Not-So-Confidential HIV Testing (by Todd Heywood, American Independent)

Mich. Health Dept. Denies Media Access to Training on Controversial HIV Database (by Todd Heywood, American Independent)

“Public Health”: Social Control and Michigan HIV Law (by Trevor Hoppe, University of Michigan) (preview and abstract)

Patients Not Allowed Access to Data Collected by Implants in their Bodies (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

From Identity Theft to Medical Data Kidnapping (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)