Posted: 18.01.07 11:23. Post subject: Вспышка ВИЧ в Казахстане

Date: Tue 8 Jan 2007
From: Brent Barrett <salbrent@sbcglobal.net>
Source: Canadian Press, Tue 9 Jan 20007 [edited]
<http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=fec9f5e6-c110-4f27-982e-1bb77f3cc21f&k=71772>


Twenty-one doctors and health officials have been charged with criminal offences that caused a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) outbreak in southern Kazakhstan, the chief prosecutor's office announced on Tue 9 Jan 2007. Blood transfusions from unchecked donors or contaminated needles have been blamed for [HIV] infection among 84 children, most of them under the age of 3 years. Some 12 mothers also have tested positive for HIV since the first pediatric cases were registered in the city of Shymkent during the summer of 2006. Seven children have already died of AIDS-related diseases, while a heart condition caused the death of an 8th, officials said.

The Chief Prosecutor's office said in a statement released on Tue 9 Jan 2007 that it had completed its investigations and charged 21 doctors and health officials with negligence. Some of them were also charged with bribery, extortion and theft of state funds, it said. All cases have been transferred to court, the statement said.

Authorities have checked thousands of children who were feared to have contracted HIV at hospitals in Shymkent, some 1600 kilometres south of the capital, Astana.

The Central Asian nation has been shocked by the outbreak, and subsequent nationwide inspections have revealed numerous cases of incompetence and corruption among doctors and nurses.

Brent Barrett
Indianapolis, Indiana
<salbrent@sbcglobal.net>