Civil Liability of Natural Persons Resulting from Transmission of Contagious Diseases with Emphasis on British Law

Nowadays, the human society is facing big challenges as a result of development of serious contagious diseases, such as Ebola, various kinds of Hepatitis, HIV and … and it has created civil liability problems. Civil liability is one of the most important issues in private law, which is considered sanction of individual rights. This paper deals with civil liability of natural persons resulting from transmission of serious contagious diseases and liability of each of them so as to prevent from violation of the rights of victims suffering from such severe contagious diseases. For instance, if a hairdresser causes disease transmission to a healthy person due to his/ her imprudence, it indicates an element of his/ her liability. Also, if a mother refrains from pre-pregnancy vaccination and needed tests and thus causes disease transmission to her baby, it is indicative of an element of her liability. On the other hand, liability arising from contagious disease is not particular to patients who are aware of their disease, but also involves unknowing patients and the liability of unaware patients can be proven by destruction and causation rules.