Article explains the right granted to state public health agencies by the Supreme Court in Jacobson v Massachusetts to mandate vaccination in the presence of actual or threatened danger to the health of its residents from infectious disease.
Clinical case examines physicians’ duties and risks during an epidemic. Commentaries address physician’s rights vs patients’ rights. Does the duty to treat always override personal or family concerns?
The ongoing anthrax vaccination case, Doe v Rumsfeld, tests whether the military can require participation in and punish refusal of a vaccination program while waiving informed consent.
Suggests to medical students what forms of self-disclosure are acceptable during clinical encounters and when self-disclosure might be interpreted by patients as taking attention away from them.
Malaria, HIV and tuberculosis rage as perpetual epidemics in developing nations. Developed nations have an ethical duty and compelling socioeconomic reasons for combatting these global infectious diseases.
In “Allocating Scare Resources in a Pandemic,” Martin Strosberg calls attention to the need for preparedness planning including methods for rationing vaccines, antiviral medications, and intensive care unit beds and staff.
Physicians should understand and be sensitive to all of the issues that affect patients when they prescribe the tertogenic medication isotretinoin for treatment of acne vulgaris.
This article sketches the history of medical volunteerism in Africa from the early religious and colonial medical programs through current humanitarian programs, assessing the role of student volunteerism as well.