Kimberly Ann Bergalis
Q1. Should it be mandated that HIV-positive healthcare professionals inform their patients of their status?
According to Department of Health Guidelines (2005), exposure risk from HIV-infected providers is highly limited to select situations, where there is the risk of so-called bleed-back. However, HIV-infected personnel have an ethical responsibility to make patient health a priority (Health Care Workers, 2005). It should be noted that an ethical responsibility differs from a legal responsibility to inform patients. There are also many instances where such information would not be necessary. This may include physical and occupational therapy, routine examinations, and other common healthcare procedures which have no risk of HIV.
If it was required to fully inform patients before every single procedure, even those without risk, this would create unnecessary stigma upon healthcare providers with HIV and also, very likely, stigma against LGBT+ providers, given the association in America between HIV and gay men. Also, it might encourage patients to make decisions about their care not really grounded in medical science, for example, not seeing the best provider for their condition because he or she was HIV.
Finally, it should be noted that there are also risks for transmitting hepatitis C and other infections in...
…her patients today?According to Wy?gowski (et al., 2016), it is critically important that healthcare institutions place the risk of HIV transmission in proper context, and not fall prey to panic. On the other hand, this does not mean that there should be no consequences. Rather, if there is a failure to take proper precautions, sanctions and ethical review are required, but this is just as true of any other issue which may arise in healthcare settings that place patients or providers at risk. HIV infection is not a high risk, but it has occurred in some rare instances, and just like…
References
HIV Infected Health Care Workers: Guidance on Management and Patient Notification. (2005). Department of Health. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---ilo_aids/documents/legaldocument/wcms_127515.pdf
HIV and occupational exposure. (2019). Centers for Disease Control (CDC). https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/workplace/healthcareworkers.html
Wy?gowski, P., Rosiek, A., Grzela, T., & Leksowski, K. (2016). Occupational HIV risk for health care workers: risk factor and the risk of infection in the course of professional activities. Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management, 12, 989–994. https://doi.org/10.2147/TCRM.S104942
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