Robert, great job on your post! As you mentioned blanket confidentiality does little to protect unsuspecting individuals yet fully protects those with malice intent to spread the virus. I fully understand that disclosure of positive HIV status has the potential to create turmoil in the lives of the affected as well as their loved ones. Stigma, the potential for violence, and discrimination is the fear that people with positive status live with. The comment, "We can fight stigma. Enlightened laws and policies are key. But it begins with openness, the courage to speak out. ", by Hanna Fishman an AIDS awareness activist, is a powerful one (Candidate, 2014).
Searching for information regarding confidentially and disclosure in the HIV positive population, I found another recent case of a HIV positive man that infected at least two women in Georgia. James Allen Propes, a 24 year-old man, failed to disclose his HIV positive status on at least two different occasions (Centric TV, 2016). The case made headlines in …show more content…
For example, if a doctor gives positive HIV test results to a patient and the patient refuses to report their intimate partners, but states to the doctor that he/she is going to go sleep with every man/women they know, this physician must notify officials acting under the duty to warn law. Confidentiality is not an absolute value, especially when real danger exist to a third party (Sirinskiene, Juskevicius, & Naberkovas, 2005). Unfortunately, most individuals with malice intent do not disclose to mandated reporters (physicians, RN's, social workers, etc) their 'plan' to knowingly infect others. The only revision in the confidentiality law that I would make is to make all that hold positive status to be identified in some way to protect the rights of others.
Searching for information regarding confidentially and disclosure in the HIV positive population, I found another recent case of a HIV positive man that infected at least two women in Georgia. James Allen Propes, a 24 year-old man, failed to disclose his HIV positive status on at least two different occasions (Centric TV, 2016). The case made headlines in …show more content…
For example, if a doctor gives positive HIV test results to a patient and the patient refuses to report their intimate partners, but states to the doctor that he/she is going to go sleep with every man/women they know, this physician must notify officials acting under the duty to warn law. Confidentiality is not an absolute value, especially when real danger exist to a third party (Sirinskiene, Juskevicius, & Naberkovas, 2005). Unfortunately, most individuals with malice intent do not disclose to mandated reporters (physicians, RN's, social workers, etc) their 'plan' to knowingly infect others. The only revision in the confidentiality law that I would make is to make all that hold positive status to be identified in some way to protect the rights of others.