Generally, healthcare providers and patients decide on the most appropriate way to make contact with previous sexual partners. The matter can also be delegated to a specialist contact tracer.
The Public Health Act 2005 (Qld) contains a number of provisions relating to contact tracing (including s 99), which can be enforced to require an HIV-positive person to provide the names and contact information of persons who may have transmitted HIV, and persons to whom the HIV-positive person may have transmitted HIV, unless the person has ‘a reasonable excuse’ (s 100). ‘Reasonable excuse’ is not defined in the text of the Act. However, the Act makes clear that it is not a reasonable excuse to fail to comply with the contact information requirement that complying with the requirement might tend to incriminate the person. Because of this, the Public Health Act 2005 (Qld) renders information given by the individual in complying with the contact information requirement as inadmissible in any civil or criminal proceeding. This also applies to information or documents obtained as a direct or indirect result of this information. Patients and practitioners must seek appropriate legal advice regarding the operation of these provisions.
The chief executive may authorise the disclosure of confidential information for a number of reasons including contact tracing (s 80). Contact tracing officers from Queensland Health have numerous functions under s 89, including identifying persons who may have acquired or transmitted HIV, and providing those persons who have acquired HIV with information to prevent or minimise the transmission of HIV. Section 108 allows disclosure of confidential information (only if authorised by the chief executive) by a relevant person to protect the health of another person, and s 109 allows disclosure (only as authorised by the chief executive) if such disclosure is reasonably believed to be in the public interest.
