What is a physician's duty to warn the family of a patient that they are at risk of contracting a contagious disease?
Ontario, Canada
The following excerpt is from Healey v. Lakeridge Health Corporation, 2006 CanLII 36247 (ON SC):
Essentially the same principle had been affirmed earlier in Davis v. Rodman, 227 S.W. 612 (1921) where the defendants were physicians who allegedly failed to advise a family of a patient of precautions they should take to avoid contracting typhoid fever from him. The court stated: It is undoubtedly the duty of physicians attending patients afflicted with contagious or infectious diseases, not to do negligently any act that would tend to spread the infections. It would likewise be their duty to exercise reasonable care to advise members of the family and others, who are liable to be exposed thereto of the nature of the disease and the danger of exposure ... [An attending physician] owes a duty to those who are ignorant of such disease, and who by reason of family ties, or otherwise, are liable to be brought in contact with the patient, to instruct and advise them as to the character of the disease. (page 614)
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