Confidentiality versus disclosure of a patient's infectious status.

Patients in health care settings have a legal and moral right to privacy, which includes confidentiality of all information related to the patient or gathered by the patient's health care team. Even so, the right to privacy is not total. Under certain circumstances, that right must yield to a state's fundamental right to enact laws to promote public health and to ensure public safety and welfare. Justifiably, dental health care team members are concerned with their health and with the possibility of being infected by a fatal disease such as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The right to know patients' infectious status is growing with the mortality rate of the disease. However, as more health care workers learn of a patient's infectious status, that patient's privacy diminishes. Abiding by laws that enforce doctor-patient confidentiality while still fulfilling their obligations to their staffs and related third parties often proves difficult for dentists and physicians. Since the discovery of AIDS, believed to be caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), health care providers have been increasingly conscientious in maintaining these professional relationships.