How do we get people with contageous disease to take treatment when they do not comply?

Question

Especially since the disease can be a potential source of infection for the community and the family as a whole.

Answer 1

you cannot force any form of medical treatment on a person. What happened to human rights here?

However, the person must understand that if they choose not to take treatment they are going to be removed from society to remove the danger eg: a special ward in hospital or some other such institution.

Every person must know that every choice they make has a consequence.

Answer 2

I work in Dialysis and this is a big problem with non-compliant patients. Employees have even been in heated arguments over the topic. In Dialysis, as in you case, majority of patients are on Medicare or Medicaid. Moreover, many of the patients have other finacial aid like housing and food.

I suggested to get patients to comply we need to have an enforcement policy with the medical and financial aid systems.

The steps for non-compliance
1) Educate the patient
2) Cut some finacial aid - government checks.
3) This is the step that I was in a heated argument about. Cut Medical Aid slowly.

I understand why I caused some of my fellow employees to be angry at me, but I stand by it - when it comes to dialysis.

The money does come from the Tax Payer. It is only fair that if a patient is not compliant that they loose some of their benefits.
Majority of the non-compliant patients are so since they do not have any financial repsonsibility. Imagine that you were a non-compliant patient and you had to pay for your healthcare yourself. Now let us say that your non-compliance causes your healthcare costs to increase (this happens the majority of the time). I bet that you would change you ways to bring the costs down and become a compliant patient.

Answer 3

The public health laws in most countries allow the incarceration of infectious patients, with or without their consent. Some diseases such as HIV are transmissible only through sex and the person need not be quarantined, but many diseases are.

Answer 4

That problem exists in South Africa wher people who have TB do not finish their medication. This combined with living in squalor and unhealthy living conditions has created a strain of extremely drug resistant TB which is incurable. In fact the UN and WHO have intervened.
When it is at this stage and the whole population is at risk then human rights should go straight out of the window and enforced medication should happen. But the bigger picture is in not creating environments ( living conditions,education etc,) within communities that put them and everyone else at risk which has not happened in South Africa.

Answer 5

well I'd say something like explaining what his/her disease could do and how it might spread to other people putting other people's lives in dangers? that usually works, or try contacting health department on how this person might affect others with his disease and how dangerous it is

Answer 6

Convict them of Reckless Endangerment. When they are prisoners they no longer have the rights that free people do.