ATLANTA -- Georgia Rep. Betty Price says her comments on people with HIV that ignited a national firestorm were "taken completely out of context."

Price, the wife of former U.S. Health Secretary Tom Price, was in a legislative committee meeting Tuesday when she asked a state health official whether people with HIV could legally be quarantined.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Price said she was just being "provocative."

She says a health official had presented that Georgia is second only to Louisiana in the rate of new infections. Part of the reason is that more than a third of Georgians with HIV are not receiving care for it. She says that's what sparked her comments.

She said she is not in favour of a quarantine but made the "rhetorical" statement because she was troubled that "too many of our fellow citizens who have HIV are not compliant."