Ethical Challenges in the Care of Emerging Diseases: A Systematic Literature Review

Management of emerging diseases requires an ethical approach to the control and care of these diseases. An ethical approach has been emphasized. The present study aimed to determine the ethical challenges in the care of emerging diseases.
In this systematic review, using the three-step method, articles that published in English were retrieved using main keywords in the Scopus, PubMed and Web of Science databases from 1970 to 2017. Then, the articles with inclusion criteria were studied and analyzed. Out of the 5833 retrieved articles, 20 articles were reviewed. Analyzing the articles and extracting the data was done by two expired researchers simultaneously, as well as, evaluating the quality of the articles in order to increase the validity and reliability of the study. In terms of study type, 16 articles were descriptive (80%) and 4 cases (20%) were qualitative studies.
Findings: The main ethical challenges identified included: patient rights, respect for patient autonomy, patient privacy, obligation of the patient care, reciprocity principle, accountability and responsibility of the states, and prevention of the patient stigmatization and discrimination.
The findings highlights the need to consider ethical considerations in planning and taking care for emerging diseases. The inclusion of professional ethics training in the management of emerging diseases and ethical decision-making in epidemics in the curriculum of health care providers is recommended for better management of these diseases.