Privacy Worry May Keep HIV Patients from Therapy Patients infected with HIV are often concerned about the confidentiality of their HIV-positive status. In fact, some patients are so worried that they will actually give up treatment to prevent the release of this information, according to a report published in the August issue of AIDS Care. Dr. Kathryn Whetten-Goldstein and colleagues from Duke University, Durham. North Carolina, studied the confidentiality issues of 15 HIV-infected patients from rural North Carolina locations. They were divided into groups designed to explore their attitudes toward, and experiences with, breaches in confidentiality. "The fear of a breach in confidentiality is definitely affecting the care that HIV-infected patients receive, " Whetten-Goldstein said. "Most studied patients had experienced or knew someone who had experienced a breach in confidentiality. " "Two types of breaches occurred, " Whetten-Goldstein noted. "The first was a more obvious type of breach. One example was a nurse who told her child that her patient was HIV-positive out of concern that her child would play with the patient’s child. " "The other type of breach was more subtle, one that providers might not consider breaches, " Whetten-Goldstein explained. "This type of breach involves providers talking about a patient’s HIV status without the patient’s knowledge of the interaction. " "The law allows the sharing of information between providers within the same institution, but patient’s consent must be obtained before providers at different institutions can share information, " she pointed out. "Patients in the study wanted providers to tell them when they are going to share information with other providers and why it is being done," Whetten-Goldstein said. "They also felt that providers should be punished when a breach occurs. " "However, because patients are often reluctant to seek legal action which may further expose their status, they felt that the system should regulate itself, " she added. All patients in the study refuse to receive any treatment because of the possibility to expose their HIV status.