Grading AIDS Tests

In the fight against AIDS, Harvard has played a leading role. At the Medical School, scientists are at the forefront of research into treatments for the deadly disease. At the School of Public Health, active efforts are underway to study the pandemic's spread and seek ways to slow it.

Curiously, however, the University lags well behind the times in terms of providing anonymous testing for the virus that causes AIDS. The fact is, if you are a Harvard students or affiliate, you can be tested for AIDS confidentially at the University Health Services (UHS). But confidential testing isn't really all that confidential.

Under the current system, the fact that you were tested and the result of the test will be recorded in your medical records. To be sure, those records can't be released unless you sign a waiver or unless a court subpoenas them. But the possibility remains that confidential tests will not remain a secret.

The system is out-dated. A better system--offered at many centers besides UHS, including Cambridge City Hospital--is for completely anonymous testing. That means that even the testing center doesn't know how you are. Patients at anonymous testing centers are assigned code numbers, and only by presenting their code numbers do they learn the results of their tests. Their names never enter into the procedure and neither the fact of the tests nor their results are ever entered onto their files.

Members of Harvard's AIDS Education and Outreach (AEO) organization are working on proposal for UHS to become an anonymous testing center. Yet there are a couple of stumbling blocks. First, since UHS only provides services to Harvard affiliates, a system would have to be devised that would allow UHS to ensure that the people it is testing are, in fact, from Harvard.

A bigger concern, however, is money. UHS, which is already under enormous financial constraints, would likely find itself further financially burdened by the new system of testing. It's not clear how much more anonymous testing would cost, but it is clear that it would likely cost more than confidential testing does, because UHS would need to provide staff members to counsel patients before and after their tests. Such pre-and post-test anonymous testing under Massachusetts Department of Public Health guidelines. One possible cost-cutting measure would be to train student as test counselors, which is the system used at the University of Southern California.

In any case, money should not prevent Harvard from providing its students with the best, most discreet form of AIDS testing available. If even one students fails to get tested because of a fear that the test could be tragic. Similarly, if even one graduate tragic. Similarly, If even one graduate loses a job opportunity because an AIDS test result is released, Harvard would be morally responsible.

The University should agree to pick up the tab of adopting an anonymous AIDS testing system immediately.