AMARILLO -- In an attempt to get an HIV-positive prostitute to seek treatment and stop spreading the infection, Amarillo officials have filed a lawsuit. "The Public Health Department assists many people with AIDS, and this single case is the very rare exception where a person who is HIV contagious is noncompliant with the health authority," Amarillo City Attorney Marcus Norris, whose office filed the civil action in Potter County on Wednesday, told the Amarillo Globe-News for its Saturday online editions.
"We believe that by her conduct, she poses a health threat to the community, and so we're going to have to try to get the court to intervene and help."
The woman, identified in court papers only by the initials T.T., has infected at least one person with HIV by engaging in prostitution and has refused efforts by local health officials to get her to act responsibly and seek treatment, according to court documents.
"This is a very last-ditch effort," said Dr. J. Rush Pierce, public health authority for the Bi-City-County Health Department. "We would not be doing this if we had been able to get this woman to behave responsibly with regard to sexual activity any other way."
According to documents included in the suit, the woman was diagnosed with HIV in January 2000 and was counseled at the Department of Health on ways to prevent spread of the virus. But in 2001 a case of HIV was traced back to T.T., and the patient informed officials that T.T. had not disclosed her HIV status prior to sexual contact.
In early 2003, Health Department officials discovered that T.T. was engaged in prostitution to support a cocaine habit, so the department issued a warning letter ordering her to enroll in treatment, according to documents in the lawsuit.
But after attending counseling for several months, she dropped out in 2004 and reverted to prostitution again, the documents say.
Since a June meeting with Pierce, T.T. has refused to meet with officials, enter drug treatment or receive treatment.
A law in the Texas Health and Safety Code allows a judge or jury to force a person into treatment if "the person is infected with a communicable disease that presents a threat to the public health and ... the person has failed to follow the orders of the health authority or department."
