US politician asks whether you can legally ‘quarantine’ HIV patients

A Republican politician has sparked outrage after asking about the legality of quarantining HIV patients.

Betty Price, a Georgia state representative, whose husband Tom Price was Donald Trump's former health secretary was speaking at a House Committee Meeting about health care access in her state.

“What are we legally able to do?” she asked. "I don't want to say the quarantine word, but I guess I just said it... What would you advise, or are there any methods, legally, that we could do that would curtail the spread?"

Ms Price was questioning the director of the HIV/Aids Epidemiology Section at the Georgia Department of Public Heath, Dr Pascale Wortley, who avoided the direct issue of quarantine while discussing other prevention plans.

Shortly after her comments, GLAAD, the world's largest LGBTQ media advocacy organisation, released a statement demanding an apology from Ms Price.

Its president, Sarah Kate Ellis said: “Comments like those made by Georgia State Representative Betty Price fly in the face of that progress, and of basic decency."

She added: “This language coming from anyone is totally unacceptable, but coming from a medical doctor and a Georgia State Representative it is reprehensible."

Ms Price is an anaesthesiologist and according to her official biography has served on the boards of the Medical Association of Atlanta and the Medical Association of Georgia.

In the US 1.1 million people in the US are currently living with HIV and one in seven are unware of thier status according to the centre for disease control prevention.

While Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price proposed a budget that threatened huge cuts HIV and AIDS funding under the National Institutes of Health.