Letter
HIV disclosure to surrogate decision makers: privacy versus presumption
-
Correspondence: Jason P Lott lottj@mail.med.upenn.edu
School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Stemmler Hall, 3450 Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
Critical Care 2007, 11:416 doi:10.1186/cc5927
Published: 5 June 2007First paragraph (this article has no abstract)
In their recent commentary, Vernillo and coworkers [1] argue that disclosure of a critically ill patient's HIV status to a surrogate is appropriate when 'necessary for the surrogate to make decisions that reflect the patient's values and interests, or when failure to disclose poses direct and foreseeable risks to the surrogate.'