Confidentiality and Disclosure

Disclosing one's HIV status is still widely perceived as socially dangerous. Similarly, another great risk people living with HIV face is the inadvertent or improper disclosure of their status which can result in denial of employment, violence, and many other collateral consequences.

This HIV Policy Resource Bank category covers state and federal laws that protect the confidentiality of HIV-related information, the rights and obligations of people with HIV with respect to disclosure of their HIV status in various settings, the importance of privacy and confidentiality guarantees to health care and prevention programs, and possible legal actions when unauthorized disclosure of HIV-related information occurs. This category also includes resources for people with HIV on disclosing their status and state non-disclosure laws.