1. The Ethical Obligation to Treat Infectious Patients: A Systematic Review of Reasons.
- Author
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Grisel, Braylee, Kaur, Kavneet, Swain, Sonal, Gorenshtein, Laura, Chime, Chinecherem, O'Callaghan, Ellen, Vasireddy, Avani, Moore, Lauren, Shin, Christina, Won, Michelle, Ebangwese, Santita, Tripoli, Todd, Lumpkin, Stephanie, Ginsberg, Zachary, Cantrell, Sarah, Freeman, Jennifer, Agarwal, Suresh, and Haines, Krista
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AIDS treatment , *PREVENTION of epidemics , *MEDICAL personnel -- United States , *MEDICAL information storage & retrieval systems , *PROFESSIONAL ethics , *HEALTH policy , *MEDICAL care , *CINAHL database , *INFECTION , *REFUSAL to treat , *HIV infections , *SYSTEMATIC reviews , *MEDLINE , *PSYCHOSOCIAL factors , *COVID-19 - Abstract
During pandemics, healthcare providers struggle with balancing obligations to self, family, and patients. While HIV/AIDS seemed to settle this issue, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) rekindled debates regarding treatment refusal. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL Complete, and Web of Science using terms including obligation, refusal, HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, and pandemics. After duplicate removal and dual, independent screening, we analyzed 156 articles for quality, ethical position, reasons, and concepts. Diseases in our sample included HIV/AIDS (72.2%), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) (10.2%), COVID-19 (10.2%), Ebola (7.0%), and influenza (7.0%). Most articles (81.9%, n = 128) indicated an obligation to treat. COVID-19 had the highest number of papers indicating ethical acceptability of refusal (60%, P <.001), while HIV had the least (13.3%, P =.026). Several reason domains were significantly different during COVID-19, including unreasonable risks to self/family (26.7%, P <.001) and labor rights/workers' protection (40%, P <.001). A surge in ethics literature during COVID-19 has advocated for permissibility of treatment refusal. Balancing healthcare provision with workforce protection is crucial in effectively responding to a global pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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