Public Goods, Private Data: HIV and the History, Ethics, and Uses of Identifiable Public Health Information

摘要

Public health departments collect a vast array of identifiable information in the course of mandatory reporting efforts and other surveillance activities. These undertakings span a range of conditions from infectious threats and chronic diseases including cancer, to immunization status and birth defects. Advocates for expanded surveillance extended the practice to occupational diseases and, most ambitiously, to profiles of childhood health status. Syndromic surveillance is also increasingly undertaken in the new post-September 11 security environment. In the one Supreme Court case addressing public health surveillance, a unanimous tribunal upheld the right of the state to conduct surveillance. The Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations, as well, explicitly permit reporting of identifiable data for public health surveillance.