21 Convicted in Kazakh AIDS Case*

Wednesday June 27, 2007 8:46 PM

ASTANA, Kazakhstan (AP) - 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.