HIV and the Law

Fast Facts

Laws and policies are structural interventions that can be facilitators or barriers to effective HIV prevention and care activities.
Examples of these laws and policies include:

47 states plus D.C. now have HIV testing laws that are consistent with CDC’s 2006 recommendations, nearly twice as many as when the recommendations were released.
18 states have Medicaid programs that reimburse for routine HIV screening in all settings and populations.
30 states plus D.C. require laboratory reporting of CD4 and viral load data to HIV surveillance programs.

What’s Law Got To Do With It?

Law impacts nearly every aspect of our lives. Laws and explicit policies can be viewed as structural interventions for achieving HIV prevention goals.

What CDC is Doing

Given the importance of law in HIV prevention work, the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP) has implemented public health law research methods to systematically collect and assess statutory and regulatory frameworks across a range of legal domains to help determine whether these legal frameworks act as barriers or facilitators to effective HIV prevention environments. DHAP has focused on the public health implications of state statutes and regulations across key HIV prevention topic areas, such as HIV testing, Medicaid reimbursement for routine HIV screening, laboratory reporting of CD4 and viral load data for HIV surveillance purposes, and criminalization of potential HIV exposure.