Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to a question asked by Mr. Todd on February 19, 1992 dealing with the protection of the public against physicians with communicable diseases. Mr. Speaker, on February 19, 1992, the honourable Member asked whether the chief medical health officer for the Province of Manitoba advised her counterpart in this jurisdiction of a dentist infected by a human immune deficiency virus, HIV. The answer is, "No." The Northwest Territories chief medical health officer was not advised of the dentist's condition.
NWT public health regulations require individuals who know or suspect that they, or any other person, including a practitioner, are infected, to report such cases to the NWT health officials. In the case of the HIV infected dentist, neither the patient nor anyone associated with the patient reported the infection.
The Department of Health will advise health boards to ensure that contractors providing service in the NWT are aware of the reporting requirements under the NWT public health regulations.