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.