A Washington man was placed under court-ordered supervision after he infected at least eight people with HIV, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Tuesday.
The unidentified Seattle-area man is said to have infected eight sexual partners with HIV since 2010, two years after he found out he was HIV-positive. Staff at Harborview Medical Center told him he should notify his sexual partners about his status, but he refused and continued to have unprotected sex, health officials say.
A court issued an order for the man to receive HIV treatment and attend counseling, marking the second time local officials placed such an order in over two decades. He could be jailed for up to a year if he fails to comply.
Court orders against HIV patients are rare, but they are used under state law as a last resort if officials see no other way to protect the public.
"We felt that the circumstances of this case required us to seek legal enforcement of a public health order as a means to protect the public's health," Hilary Karasz, a Public Health Department spokeswoman for Seattle-King County, told the newspaper. "We cannot reveal the specific circumstances of this case."
The patient's attorney also declined to comment.
According to the court records available, the patient learned he was HIV-positive in June 2008. He was informed during several counseling sessions about safe sex practices to lessen the chance of infecting others.
Yet he had unprotected sex with at least eight people, infecting all of them. The latest case of infection occurred in June, court records say, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. So the health department made a rare move and filed a lawsuit against the patient on Sept. 2.
"There is currently no plan to jail or forcibly hospitalize the patient," Karasz told the newspaper. "The ultimate impact of the order will depend on the patient's actions."
So far the patient has not complied with his court-ordered treatment and counseling, with at least one citation being issued Aug. 7, health officials say.
The last time King County took legal action against an HIV-positive person was in 1993, the newspaper reported.
It is not clear if the victims infected others with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS and kills 15,000 people in the U.S. annually. One in six people living with HIV don't know they are HIV positive.
