By FireRescue1 Staff

WASHINGTON — Responders will again have the right to be notified of possible HIV or other life-threatening illness exposure following the approval of the Ryan White Act Treatment Extension Act by President Obama on Friday.

The bill, which was passed by Congress last month, includes a provision requiring hospitals to alert EMS workers within 48 hours of exposure to infectious diseases. In addition, the bill allows responders to request a determination as to whether or not a particular patient has an infectious disease.

The updated law provides new protections not found in the previous version. When the bill was revised in 2006, mandates requiring the notification of responder health hazards by hospitals were eliminated. Fire-EMS and public safety professionals and advocates have since been working to reinstate the notification requirements.

While many Fire-EMS personnel consider the updates an improvement to previous protocol, the bill holds that the HHS secretary can waive the notification requirement in the case of a federally-declared public emergency.