42 U.S.C. § 300ff–38 — Grants for partner notification programs

(a) In general — The Secretary may give grants to States whose laws or regulations match subsection (b), to run programs providing partner counseling and referral services, subject to the CDC-data preference described in (c). (b) Description of compliant State programs — To qualify, a State's laws or practices (including programs run at officials' discretion) must include all of the following. The State's public health officer must run a partner-notification program telling the partners of people with HIV/AIDS that they may have been exposed. A health provider that tests or treats someone for HIV/AIDS must confidentially report a positive result to the State's public health officer in a manner the CDC Director approves — except a State may exempt from this reporting rule any testing done through an anonymous program where the person's identity was never disclosed, though that exemption does not apply to a provider that goes on to treat the person for the disease. The notification program itself must be run so that: partners get an appropriate chance to learn they were exposed, but the State never tells them the infected person's identity; counseling and testing — covering how the disease spreads, including prenatally and perinatally, and how to prevent it — are available to both partners and infected individuals; counseling of both groups covers therapies for slowing immune-system decline and related conditions, plus other prevention information; both groups get referrals for appropriate services, including support services and legal aid; notifications happen in person unless that would be an unreasonable burden on the State; an infected person faces no criminal or civil penalty, and no civil liability, for declining to name partners or otherwise not cooperating; a health provider that reported an infected individual's identity as required is not liable just because the State itself failed to notify partners; and the State may still notify partners without the infected person's consent. The State must also report yearly to the CDC Director on how many people were asked for partner names, how many gave names, and how many named partners were notified, and must cooperate with the CDC's national partner-notification effort, including sharing information between States' public health officers. (c) Reporting system for cases of HIV/AIDS; preference in making grants — In awarding these grants, the Secretary must give preference to States whose HIV/AIDS case-reporting systems produce data accurate and reliable enough to be used for the case counts required under section 300ff–28(a)(2)(D)(i). (d) Authorization of appropriations — $10,000,000 a year is authorized for fiscal years 2007 through 2009 to carry out this section.