There’s a case in Australia that raises a slew of privacy, confidentiality, and health records security issues because dozens of women allege that a doctor who performed their abortions gave them Hepatitis C.
Had this occurred during another kind of surgery, women would probably feel more comfortable coming forward to identify themselves as having been infected, but because the problem was associated with abortions, women are more reluctant to be publicly identified.
Grant McArthur reports:
… So far, 41 women who underwent abortions with Dr [James Lathan] Peters have been revealed as having a strain of hepatitis C genetically matching his since the scandal was uncovered last January.
More of his patients also have hepatitis C where the exact strain cannot be matched, while another 1000 women are still being tested after attending the Croydon Day Surgery, now called Marie Stopes Maroondah, the Fertility Control Centre in East Melbourne, St Albans Endoscopy Centre and Western Day Surgery in Sunshine where Dr Peters worked.
[…]
The security of highly personal health records seized by police from the Croydon abortion clinic last weekend has also become an issue, with Health Services Commissioner Beth Wilson contacting police to ensure the confidentiality of vulnerable patients.
The Herald Sun understands the records are locked away in a special area and are accessible by only 12 people at the centre of the investigation, measures which Ms Wilson said satisfied her.
Read more in the Herald Sun.