WHAT'S NEW
LEGISLATIVE WATCH
- CULTURALLY & LINGUISTICALLY APPROPRIATE HIV TESTING PROMOTION. Cost-Effective Statewide Public Awareness Campaigns to Address Late Testing and Increasing Rates of Infection in Communities of Color-- The Latino Coalition Against AIDS (LCAA), and the Palms Urban Health Institute (PUHI) propose a statewide HIV testing promotion demonstration project. The demonstration project would require a $10 million budget augmentation to the California State Office of AIDS to fund culturally and linguistically appropriate public education campaigns. The proposed initiative would call on private media outlets to contribute a pre-determined percentage of purchased media as a charitable contribution towards the goals of this campaign. In addition, private, corporate and other non-governmental sources would be approached to supplement state funding. Existing media partnerships (e.g., with Spanish-language media entities such as Univision and African-American media outlets such as the “Los Angeles Sentinel” newspaper) would further ensure cost-effective investments to reduce stigma and barriers to HIV testing and reach populations that otherwise have little or no exposure to culturally and linguistically appropriate HIV information. The proposed initiative would work collaboratively with existing HIV prevention programs funded at local community-based organizations.
Click here for entire proposal:
LCAA Budget Item: HIV Public Awareness Campaigns for Communties of Color (PDF File)
- New funding for the Therapeutic Monitoring Program. The LCAA supports $4.7 million in new funding for the Therapeutic Monitoring Program. The state's Therapeutic Monitoring Program (TMP) provides vouchers to health jurisdictions to obtain viral load and resistance tests for low-income Californians. Once funded at $8 million, TMP currently receives $4 million.
- AB 66 (Dymally) would require that HIV testing is offered for all inmates entering a correctional facility for incarceration for a period of at least one year, for persons entering a state prison or a state hospital housing patients committed pursuant to existing provisions of law. This bill requires that testing be offered between 30 and 60 days after entry into, and between 30 and 60 days prior to the expected discharge from the facility. The bill was amended to provide for counseling and voluntary consent for partner notification, protections for HIV positive inmates so that they are not denied eligibility for and access to programs, and the development of an in-prison HIV care and treatment program for inmates who test positive and upon release into the community. Inmates have the right to decline the test without ramifications.
- AB 629 (Brownley) would enact the Sexual Health Education Accountability Act, which would require, with certain exceptions, any program that provides education to prevent adolescent or unintended pregnancy or to prevent sexually transmitted infections and that is conducted, operated, or administered by the state or any state agency, or is funded directly or indirectly by the state to meet specified requirements including that all information is medically accurate, current and objective;individuals providing instruction or information shall know and use the most current scientific data on transmitted diseases; the program shall not reflect or promote bias against any person on the basis of disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation.
- AB 682 (Berg) makes HIV screening a routine part of healthcare delivery by authorizing testing as part of the general consent for medical care by deleting provisions from existing law that currently prohibits a person from testing a person's blood for HIV without the written consent of the subject of the test. The bill would require a medical care provider, prior to ordering a test that identifies infection with HIV, to inform the patient that they test is planned, provide information about the test, and advise the patient that he or she has the right to decline the test. The bill revises the prenatal HIV blood testing standard from providing a pregnant woman the right to "accept or refuse" the test, to instead, "decline" the test and repeals requirements that the acceptance of testing for HIV be documented on a specified form, signed by the patient, and maintained in the medical records.
- AB 1334 (Swanson) would enact the Inmate and Community Public Health and Safety Act, which would require the secretary to allow any nonprofit or health care agency to distribute sexual barrier protection devices in prison.
California Governor Appoints New Chief of Office of AIDS
Michelle Roland, M.D., 45, of