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June 29, 2007

Twenty-one convicted in Kazakh AIDS case

A court convicted 21 medical workers Wednesday for their roles in infecting scores of children with the virus that causes AIDS in a case that has outraged Kazakhstan.The Shymkent district court gave suspended sentences to five senior health officials, including the district's chief medical officer, according to the ruling by Judge Ziyadinkhan Pirniyaz. Another 16 medical workers, including nurses and doctors in the city's hospital and clinics, meanwhile, were sentenced to prison sentences of up to five years. When the suspended sentences were announced in the courtroom, people appearing to be relatives yelled and fainted in outrage, according to video from Russian TV.The Central Asian nation has been shocked by the infections, which resulted when scores of children and 13 mothers contracted HIV through injections or blood transfusions at hospitals in Shymkent, a city 1,000 miles south of the capital, Astana. Kazakh authorities have been testing thousands of mothers and children feared to be at risk of contracting HIV. Nationwide inspections have revealed numerous cases of incompetence and corruption among doctors and nurses, with tainted blood being sold readily in some cases. Health officials say 118 children have been confirmed as contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, along with 14 mothers. (AP)

© 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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