KZBlog

On the 9th of January, court cases began for doctors and officials implicated in the errors that led to 84 children and 12 women being infected with the HIV virus in Shymkent in Southern Kazakhstan. The infections apparently came from children’s hospitals that failed to properly test blood donors for HIV and/or reused needles. It is widely believed that hospital staff members sold new needles to raise money.

The Chief Prosecutor’s office said in a statement Tuesday 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.

At the same time, Reuters Health is reporting that Kazakhstan has a severe HIV/AIDS problem with 7 000 official cases and possibly three times as many real cases (out of a population of about 16 million). The incidence rate has doubled every year since 2000. Further, education about HIV/AIDS is not widespread and discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS is rampant.

Certainly in my experience HIV/AIDS is associated here (as in many places) with drug abuse, prostitution and homosexuals and therefore socially extremely touchy with a prevailing belief that infected people did something wrong. It should also be noted that the crises in Shimkent has done a lot to raise awareness and quite a bit of money and expertise are going into AIDS prevention now; the results may simply not be visible yet.