In a landmark case about patient confidentiality, two GPs in Australia have been successfully sued for breach of contract and for negligence for failing to ensure that a man who tested positive for HIV told his wife about the result.

The woman, known as PD and who contracted the infection, has been awarded $A720 000 (£288 000; $US473 400; ‡404 200) by the Supreme Court of New South Wales, which found that the doctors should not have assumed she would have been informed (24 May, p 1107).

The 28 year old woman and the man from …