Patient obligations #
Section 66 of the Public Health Act 2005 (Qld) sets out guiding principles in relation to notifiable conditions. For the purposes of the Act, HIV is a controlled notifiable condition.
The guiding principles include:
- A person at risk of acquiring HIV should take all reasonable precautions to avoid acquiring HIV
- A person who suspects they have HIV should ascertain whether they have HIV and what precautions should be taken to prevents others from acquiring HIV.
Queensland’s Public Health Act 2005 (Qld) includes criminal offences for recklessly placing someone else at risk of acquiring HIV (and other controlled notifiable conditions) or of transmitting HIV (or other notifiable conditions).
Section 143 of the Public Health Act 2005 (Qld) states that a person must not recklessly put someone else at risk of acquiring a controlled notifiable condition.
If a person is found guilty of this offence, they may be subject to a penalty of up to 200 penalty units or up to 18 months’ imprisonment.
Further, a person must not recklessly transmit a controlled notifiable condition to someone else. Failure to comply attracts a penalty of up to 400 penalty units or 2 years’ imprisonment.
A defence is available if the other person knew that the person had HIV, and voluntarily accepted the risk of acquiring HIV.
In Zaburoni v The Queen [2016] HCA 12, Justices Kiefel, Bell and Keane describe the term ‘recklessness’ as it applies in Queensland and this particular offence context as: a state of mind in which a person adverts to the risk that particular conduct may result in particular harm and, with that awareness, engages in that conduct. A person may be more or less reckless depending upon the person’s awareness of the likelihood of the risk materialising.
Healthcare provider obligations (pre-contact tracing) #
Not defined.
