HIV-AIDS Cure News 2017: Georgia Lawmaker Brings Up HIV 'Quarantine' to Stop Spread of Virus
A Georgia state representative, herself a medical professional, raised the question of stopping the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, by doing a 'quarantine' of carriers. Dr. Betty Price brought up the idea during a committee meeting last Tuesday, Oct. 17.
Price, an anesthesiologist by practice, as well as the wife of former Health and Human Services secretary Dr. Tom Price, suggested a measure that could involve isolating people with HIV infections. She raised the question of what they could do, legally, to the situation, during the committee meeting that was streamed online.
"I don't want to say the 'quarantine' word, but I guess I just said it. ... What would you advise, or are there any methods, legally, that we could do that would curtail the spread?" she asked further.
She added that, currently, it seems that there is an alarming number of people who are living as potential carriers, considering that modern treatments have let them survive without falling victim to full-blown AIDS.
"Whereas, in the past, they died more readily, and then at that point, they are not posing a risk. So, we've got a huge population posing a risk if they're not in treatment," Price noted.
It's a bold question that had not been raised since the height of the spread of AIDS in the U.S. during the 1980's as CNN pointed out. The LGBTQ community would not let her remarks slide, however, as advocacy group GLAAD put the Georgia representative on notice, demanding an apology from her.
"We have come a long way in how we understand and talk about HIV as a nation, and comments like those made by Georgia State Representative Betty Price fly in the face of that progress, and of basic decency," the group said in their statement.
The Georgia Department of Public Health has no comment on the matter as of this time.
