Patients can be made to have HIV test to protect doctor

Dutch doctors have welcomed a Supreme Court ruling that a patient can be ordered to give blood for an HIV test in order to limit injury to a doctor during treatment.

After an appeal process lasting more than two years, the court concluded that the need to limit the damage to a doctor outweighed the relatively minor infringement of the patient's rights.

The judgment goes beyond previous similar cases, which involved a rape or biting by someone suspected of being HIV positive. In such cases, a …