Doctor question - people with diseases ...

In which country?

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001929.htm

For the US. Click on the individual diseases to find out what medical staff is required to report.

I really hope this is for research.

But, it's out of my range of knowledge. I'll look into meowzbark's link for info too.

Not sure about a list with infected people's names on. That information would likely be either only found in their notes (with any external sources anonymised) or potentially held by the WHO who will keep it on a database and have tight security on it.

But many infectous diseases are not blackmail material. I don't think there are many STDs on that list, for example. I'm not sure even AIDs qualifies. The reason the diseases are supposed to be reported is because they are deadly and very infectous (things like ebola, for example) and they are reported so that the authorities can impose quarantine before it spreads too far (usually by taking the reported patient into isolation and testing anyone they have come in contact with). STDs are STDs because their main (and sometimes only) vector is sex - they require skin to skin or even blood to blood contact and so you rarely get an issue where an emergency quarantine is needed. Mostly they just tell you to inform anyone you have slept with and ask them to get tested too.

So, I am failing to see how 'getting a dose of TB or Ebola or Spainish Flu' can be blackmail material?

A long, long time ago, when I was still in grammar school, there was a news report on TV that was filmed just down my block in the school parking lot. Apparently word had gotten out that a student might have tuberculosis, and the reporter was advising parents to have all students attending the school vaccinated. It turned out to be a scare, and I don't recall any names being mentioned, but it was a pretty big deal. Now-a-days I'm not sure that any sort of name list could be released due to strict privacy laws, but I could be wrong.

As I understand it, and I don't claim to be an epidemiologist for the Feds, The basic report does not have the patient's name on it, but there are identifiers, so the the epidemiologists can contact the physician and track down the source, etc. Hospitals also have epidemiologists who spend their time collecting such data and sending it on.

Even if in real life it doesn't happen, I don't think it would be that much of a stretch to have the person's name written down somewhere, as to identify the source of the disease, and therefore, hackable, stealable, or robbery under arms-able.

Mustafa said:

There are some diseases that must be reported to health authorities, right? Like TB ... etc, when those diseases are reported, is the person's name, the one who has the disease, reported also? Is HIV and AIDS one of those diseases?

I'm wondering if there is a list with infected people's names on it, that could be stolen (and then in my story, used as blackmail).

Click to expand...

Yes HIV is a reportable disease and maybe things have changed since the going on a decade since I retired but reports were individual incidents, so unless something was stolen frm the CDC, I doubt that any, "lists," would exist.

I worked at a public health clinic and did some of our mandatory reporting. You record basic demographics (age, race, zip code, sex, etc) on certain diseases. As I recall syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea were the ones, but that was because the testing was paid for by the county. HIV isn't reported much because most of the testing is usually anonymous rapid-result testing. You report the number of cases, but that's really all you can know.

In Alabama we are required to report the Health Department anyone that has tuberculosis. I'm not sure on HIV or any other sorts of diseases, but I do know they have your name for TB. They require you to recieve treatment for it, and if not you are taken to jail.

As far as I know in Canada, there isn't anything of the sort of a 'list' of names. Should you look into a career in Interior Health, be it as far down as administration or nursing, or as high up as a Physician, you need to take a TB test upon interview/employment. Any constant contact with people like that you need to retake a test or get vaccinated.

We are required to get a yearly TB skin test. I work in a hospital setting, so we go down to employee health and get a subcutaneous injection, usually in the forearm, that rises and looks like a small bug bite. You have to have it read within 48-72 hours, if it's negative it goes away, if not then the bump is still there. You are reported to the health department when you test positive. This is to ensure that you recieve treatment for it.