BCCLA asks government to reject forced HIV testing law
by British Columbia Civil Liberties Association
The BCCLA is urging the provincial government and
opposition to reject a private member’s bill that proposes court ordered
HIV testing where emergency workers are exposed to body fluids.
The
Association says that the bill threatens emergency worker health by
failing to educate them about the urgency of treatment on exposure, and
unnecessarily erodes the principle that government should not force any
form of medical procedure on citizens.
Current practice for exposure to HIV in the workplace
is a four week course of highly active anti-retroviral drug therapy
commenced within two to four hours of exposure. For Hepatitis B,
treatment involves immediate vaccination, not later than 24 hours from
exposure.
There is no treatment available for Hepatitis C exposure.
“Given current treatment guidelines, appropriate
medical treatment protocols would be under way before a lawyer would
even be able to draft the first of the documents required for to apply
for a court order. The suggestion that court-ordered testing is a
panacea in cases of work-related exposure thus appears misguided,” notes
Robert Holmes, Q.C., President of the BCCLA. “Treatment must be based
on medical assessments of risk level, and the information we’ve seen
suggests that in high risk situations it should start immediately.”
Further, HIV and Hepatitis testing is known to be
unreliable given infection window periods – a person may not just
falsely test negative due to lab errors, but the infection may not have
yet built up to levels detectable by current tests. Predicating
treatment on test results, forced or otherwise, could have disastrous
consequences.
“Our emergency workers are heroes for the risks that
they take every day,” said Holmes. “But we should provide them with the
best medical practice, equipment, treatment and advice possible, not the
false comfort of a pointless law that will lead to legal wrangling
about forced medical testing and treatment.”
British Columbia Civil Liberties Association
June 2, 2011
