Patients have the right to privacy and confidentiality of information in all communications and records related to their illness.

MCI Ethics Regulation 7.17 does not allow a registered medical practitioner to publish the photographs or case reports of patients without their permission.

It states: “A registered medical practitioner shall not publish photographs or case reports of his / her patients without their permission, in any medical or other journal in a manner by which their identity could be made out. If the identity is not to be disclosed, the consent is not needed.”

The WMA 2005 Declaration of Lisbon on the Rights of the Patient states, “All identifiable information about a patient′s health status, medical condition, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment and all other information of a personal kind must be kept confidential, even after death.” 

No confidential information can be disclosed unless the “patient gives explicit consent or if expressly provided for in the law. Information can be disclosed to other health care providers only on a strictly "need to know" basis unless the patient has given explicit consent.”