Identity of SARS patients confidential

Identity of SARS patients confidential

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Singapore's Minister of Health Lim Hng Kiang last week described
three women who each had passed on Coronavirus, which causes
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), to about 20 others as
"Super Infectors".

One of the women is Esther Mok, named Super Infector 1, as
revealed in The Straits Times of March 31. At present, she is
still undergoing medical treatment in the Tan Tock Seng Hospital,
Singapore.

Meanwhile, a Jakarta television station on Thursday broadcast
the full name, as well as footage, of a suspected SARS patient
lying helplessly on a bed in the Karyadi Hospital in Semarang,
Central Java.

All this raises the question as to whether or not the public
has the right to know the identities of patients when an epidemic
breaks out?

Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi said on Thursday that the
government, and health workers and institutions, must not reveal
the identity of any alleged, observed, suspected, or confirmed
SARS patients to the public.

Law expert Husen Karbala, a lecturer in the University of
Indonesia's law school, supported the minister's statement.

"Actually, whether in normal or extraordinary circumstances,
not only doctors but all health workers, including nurses and
even medical students, are obliged to keep the identities and
medical records of patients confidential," said Husen, who
specializes in medical law.

He said Indonesia had legal products and codes of ethics
protecting the rights of patients to have their personal data
kept confidential. These products and codes consisted of the
Hippocratic oath, the code of medical ethics, nurses' code of
ethics and Government Regulation No.10/1966 on the obligation of
doctors to keep medical records confidential.

"Patients who feel they have suffered due to a violation of
the rules by medical workers may file a lawsuit," he said.

Health workers who violate the law face punishment under
Article 322 of the Criminal Code, which states that anyone who
reveals confidential data can be imprisoned for a maximum of nine
months.

However, he said that such rights could be abrogated where a
disease had reached epidemic proportions or was highly
contagious.

"Still, only officials who have the right to be informed of
patients' medical records are allowed to have access to such
information. As for the public, I don't think they need to know
the detailed health information of patients," he said.

However, the public have the right to be clearly informed
about the spread of a disease, such as the number of patients and
the general situation to date, he said.