Officials from local AIDS organizations spoke against an announcement April 24 that a Chicago man was being charged with criminal transmission of HIV.
According to Cook County prosecutors, Johanson Little, of the 4400 block of South State Street, dated a Cook County woman from June 2012 to June 2013. She later tested positive for HIV and said that Little was the only man with whom she had sexual relations during and after that time frame. Little had told the woman that his wife had died from ovarian cancer, but the wife's family later said that she had died from AIDS complications, reported Chicago Tribune April 24.
Little was charged with criminal transmission of HIV, a class 2 felony. On April 24, Judge James Brown ordered Little held on $750,000 bail.
Suraj Madoori, Coordinator of AIDS Foundation of Chicago's HIV Prevention Justice Alliance, said that the state's laws criminalizing HIV transmission in cases such as this inexorably complicate public health measures.
"Why would you ever want to get tested, if you knew that it would get back to harm you further?" Madoori asked. "Laws like these are detrimental to building good relations with communities who are at risk for transmission."
He added that the laws are remnants of an age when governments knew nothing about HIV and were doing whatever they could to prevent the infection from spreading. "They no longer make any sense, and they are based on data from the 1980s."
Tom Yates, executive director of AIDS Legal Council Chicago, added, "I'm unaware of any evidence that laws such as these prevent transmission of HIV. To me, the law stigmatizes disclosure."
Yates added that, despite a presumption of innocence, the man's status is now a matter of public record. "It's unfortunate that this information was reported and released."