Individual Rights and Infectious Disease - Essay Example

"Individual Rights and Infectious Disease" is a perfect example of a paper on medical ethics. Andrew Speaker was diagnosed with asymptomatic drug-resistant tuberculosis in the spring of 2007. He was required by law to report back to county health officials for further screening. Those officials knew he was planning on traveling, and Speaker was aware he was infected with TB. After he left for his trip, it was discovered he had a form of TB known as extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB); had this been known originally, quarantine measures may have been used from the beginning. Upon returning to the United States through Canada, he was held in quarantine by the CDC (Night, 2007).

            While traveling in this condition is clearly dangerous and a hazard to other travelers, there seems to be no extant legislation preventing him from doing so. He had a right to the freedom of movement, including to leave the country. Some questioned the Constitutionality of the quarantine regulations. Under HIPAA, Speaker also had a right to the privacy of his medical information. This right was violated when his name and disease status were revealed to the media while he was already in quarantine and no longer a public health risk (Night, 2007).

            The use of isolation and quarantine measures, including restrictions such as being placed on a no-fly light and federal detention orders as were used on Andrew Speaker, is to protect public health. Isolation is used for those individuals who are definitively contagious, while quarantine is used for those who are suspected of exposure. The Department of Health and Human Services of the United States is responsible for preventing the movement of highly contagious diseases into the country or across state lines, limiting the spread of these diseases and protect citizens, and has the power to detain non-compliant patients if necessary. Despite some past abuses of these powers, quarantine and isolation are still vital tools in controlling disease in the US (Parmet, 2007).

            I believe that Andrew Speaker took advantage of his rights to freedom of movement in order to avoid missing his plans in Europe. According to the county health officials, Speaker was unable to be located to receive his plan for containment and left the country two days earlier than originally planned, all shortly after receiving his diagnosis of tuberculosis (Night, 2007). Later, after it was suspected he had XDR-TB, he admittedly dodged containment at an Italian hospital and changed his flight plans in order to avoid being found by the authorities (Parmet, 2007). To me, this sounds as if Speaker was deliberately running from the possibility of isolation.

            Speaker obviously had no intention of complying with any kind of reasonable isolation procedure. Considering he rode on international flights, extending the time other passengers were exposed to him and therefore increasing the possibility of disease transfer, his actions put potentially thousands of Americans, Canadians, and Europeans at risk (US Congressional Research Service, 2010). The CDC had no choice but to detain him. His rights as an individual and as an American citizen ended when he began putting others in danger from this highly infectious and dangerous disease.

            As a result of the Speaker's failure to comply with county health officials and his continued avoidance of federal officials, new public health regulations have been needed to prevent this from happening in the future. For example, the CDC can now place someone on a “Do Not Board” list if they are suffering from a dangerous and contagious disease (US Congressional Research Service, 2010). Noncompliance is also being considered as a larger health risk, as Speaker was most likely fully aware of the risks he was taking by traveling and yet did so anyway (Sampathkumar, 2007).

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