MEDICAL CONFIDENTIALITY AND CHALLENGES OF PROTECTINGTHE RIGHTS OF PERSONS LIVING WITH HIV AND AIDS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

In Nigeria, as in other parts of Africa, persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAS) often experience discrimination and stigmatization by family or in the workplace, at school, and in other settings, including correctional centres and healthcare and religious institutions. As a result of this, many persons living with HIV/AIDS shy away from medical treatment and making their status known, owing to the fact that there have been repeated cases of breach of confidence on the part of the medical practitioners who care for the well-being of persons living with HIV/AIDS. The duty of healthcare professionals to keep a patient’s information confidential in the course of treatment and care usually places them in a difficult position as a result of the need to balance the conflicting interest of confidentiality and disclosure. This work examined the principle of medical confidentiality and professional secrecy, the rights of persons living with HIV and AIDS to medical treatment as well as the challenges faced by healthcare professionals in the treatment of persons living with HIV and AIDS, including the duty to warn caregivers and third parties in appropriate situations. The authors found that because a conflict between the rights of persons living with HIV/AIDS to confidentiality and the rights of third parties, including the public, to be protected from harm exists, many healthcare providers are placed in a quagmire. The authors also identified some notable exceptions to the duty of confidentiality, juxtaposing them with the case of persons living with HIV/AIDS. While adopting a doctrinal approach to the topic; considering various authors and a number of cases, the work concluded by proffering recommendations, among which are the beneficial disclosure of sero status both by persons living with HIV/AIDS as well as healthcare providers, and the criminalisation in Nigeria, of deliberate, reckless conduct against medical advice, adjudged to be carried out by persons living with HIV/AIDS with the intent of infecting others.