The father of a 25-year-old woman whose medical report was posted on central street walls of Mytilene, the capital of the northeastern Aegean island of Lesvos, denied it contained a diagnosis that she was HIV positive and expressed his dismay over the coverage of the story.
He claimed that the photocopies of the report were posted by a ‘former boyfriend who has caused similar problems in the past’and that he ‘obviously confused an illness she had with AIDS’. “It is unacceptable for a media outlet to say someone has AIDS without having the necessary proof, ” he told local news site Lesvos News (Link in Greek).
“My daughter has a clean bill of health,” he said.
Lesvos News posted a copy (Link in Greek) of the woman’s medical report .
According to a news story published last week by empros.net (Link in Greek), dismayed locals were striving to collect hundreds of copies of her medical records that included her name off the capital’s streets.
The site later confirmed the error and said police had arrested a 46-year-old on the suspicion of publicising the woman’s medical records.
The suspect apparently made photocopies of the diagnosis at an Athens hospital distributed them around the island capital.
Copying and publishing someone’s medical report, without their approval, is illegal and considered an invasion of privacy.