Kansas Lawmakers OK Repeal of AIDS Quarantines Ban

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators have approved a bill to protect medical and

emergency workers that also repeals a 25-year-old ban on quarantining AIDS and HIV patients.

The bill is headed to Gov. Sam Brownback after both chambers approved it Friday night. The votes were 36-2 in the Senate and 120-0 in the House.

The bill directs the state health department to draft rules making it easier for medical and emergency workers to learn if they've been exposed to infectious diseases.

The provision repealing the 1988 law protecting AIDS and HIV patients faced strong criticism from gay rights advocates and civil libertarians.

The health department promised legislators its new rules would continue a ban. Agency officials said even without a ban, it would never be medically necessary to quarantine AIDS or HIV patients.

OMSJ Appeals USAF HIV Case

30 Apr-WICHITA – Three months after USAF officials convicted Technical Sergeant David Gutierrez to eight years at Fort Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, OMSJ’s  HIV Innocence Group has filed motions for a new hearing.

OMSJ has uncovered disturbing evidence that implicates USAF Maj. James Dorman and Capt. Aaron Maness with the deliberate suppression of favorable evidence that Gutierrez was neither HIV-positive and that his treating physician, Donna Sweet MD, failed to diagnose Gutierrez  and voluntarily testified against him at his trial.  Although prosecutors made no attempt to prove that Gutierrez was infected with HIV, Dorman, Maness and the hearing officers never raised any question about his alleged infection (see affidavit).

Air Force officials have thirty days to respond to the charges.  NBC affiliate KSN is covering the story.