PORTLAND, Maine — The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention's policy of releasing "only the minimum amount of data necessary" during infectious disease outbreaks runs counter to recommendations issued by several national public health organizations.
Most of those organizations recommend being as open as possible to protect public health.
The Maine CDC this week refused to identify the districts where four chicken pox outbreaks occurred this school year. The agency says chicken pox sickened 84 schoolchildren during the 2014-15 academic year.
The Portland Press Herald reports that guidelines recommended by three national groups emphasize openness.
Maine's policy is meant to protect privacy, citing the "negative consequences" of releasing information that leads to "decline in property value, loss of job, legal prosecution, embarrassment, loss of health care and threats of physical violence."