61 children infected with AIDS virus in Kazkah medical scandal

AFP, September, 2006

ALMATY (AFP) — Sixty-one children are now known to have been infected with the AIDS virus in southern Kazakhstan as a result of medical negligence, the health ministry said. Five of them have died. "As of today we have detected 61 children infected with the HIV virus in southern Kazakhstan, of whom five have died," ministry spokesman Moris Abdulin told AFP.

The Kazakh public prosecutor said it was suing the former regional health director and his two deputies for gross negligence. The widening scandal has already led to the sacking of Health Minister Erbolat Dosayev and the governor of southern Kazakhstan, Bolat Jylkyshyev. Earlier on Tuesday the ministry had reported 58 infections and four deaths, all in children who had been admitted to hospital in the region. The health authorities said it appeared the children had become ...