Previously, people living with HIV could face harsher penalties than people without HIV for engaging in the same illicit activity. Dr. Kathleen Brady, the director of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s Division of HIV Health, issued a statement praising the elimination of enhanced penalties for people with HIV. Waxman told Metro Weekly that, before Shapiro signed the anti-trafficking bill into law, HIV was the only disease singled out under Pennsylvania law for enhanced criminal penalties. He noted, however, that the enhanced penalties for people with HIV have rarely been used by law enforcement in recent years. “So we don’t know of anyone who’s currently serving a sentence that has been enhanced because they have HIV.