Do we need an ethical framework for hospital infection control?

SummaryStrategies for the control of the spread of infection in hospitals may lead to constraints on individual autonomy, freedom of movement, or contact with others. Codes of (ethical) practice for healthcare professionals tend to emphasise responsibilities to individual patients. Ethical frameworks for public health focus on groups of individuals (populations), the majority of whom are relatively healthy and empowered. Hospital infection control professionals must take account of both of these perspectives, sensitive to the care of infected and potentially infectious individuals, while protecting the vulnerable and relatively dependent population of hospital patients from further compromise to their health. A number of frameworks for an ethics of public health have been proposed over the last few years but there are sufficient differences in ethical considerations between collective interventions that aim to protect and promote the health of the public and interventions taken in the context of hospital infection control to justify a distinctive ethics of hospital infection control. Professional bodies may be best placed to lead the development of such a framework.