Work

Disclosure of a Participant’s HIV Status During a Household Community HIV Testing Project

Year: 2022

Type: book-chapter

Abstract: The narrative is framed within the context of ways that public health interventions balance the rights of individuals and community when related to infectious diseases. This central example is from a community-based HIV testing program in an area with high HIV prevalence. We describe a breach of confidentiality resulting from an involuntary disclosure of a participant’s HIV status. This breach of confidentiality occurs within a family. The narrative considers the respective rights of individuals and community members related to disclosure of HIV status and pays attention to how roles (e.g., health care worker, sexual partner) influence decisions regarding disclosure of someone’s HIV status. There were clear testing program guidelines for how, when, and where to disclose HIV status of household members. Standard operating procedures and careful training were meant to protect data confidentiality and privacy of patients. In practice, things were messier and less clear. The narrative describes how this confidentiality breach occurred, what was done to ensure the participant was safe after the fact and ways to amend the breach on a systems level.

Source: Public health ethics analysis

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-92080-7_6