New York State Society of Surgeons v. Axelrod

OPINION OF THE COURT

Harvey, J.

In February 1988 petitioners, four medical societies, requested that respondents, the Commissioner of Health and the Public Health Council, designate an infection with human immunodeficiency virus (hereinafter HIV infection) as a communicable disease and a sexually transmissible disease1 pursuant to Public Health Law § 225 (5) (h) and § 2311. To do so *56would trigger the operation of statutes providing for isolation and quarantine, reporting, testing and contact testing for those diseases added to the list. Petitioners’ main concern is with the provisions relating…