63 Kazakh Children Get HIV at Hospitals
Pastor Dale Morgan
Sep 29, 8:47 PM EDT
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63 Kazakh Children Get HIV at Hospitals*
By BAGILA BUKHARBAYEVA
Associated Press Writer
SHYMKENT, Kazakhstan (AP) -- This industrial city is reeling after
learning that at least 63 children have contracted AIDS through medical
negligence many blame on corruption and the illicit sale of blood.
At least five infected toddlers have died after receiving injections or
blood transfusions in hospitals in Shymkent, a city in Kazakhstan's most
densely population region 1,000 miles south of the capital.
Valentina Skryabina, leader of the nongovernment group Nadezhnaya Opora,
which works to prevent AIDS among drug addicts, is convinced the illegal
sale of blood is the source of the HIV in Shymkent's hospitals.
"Blood is an article of trade.... Hospitals are offered blood, and not
always through the (official) blood center. People trade in blood like
they do in human organs."
Skryabina said addicts and the homeless have been accepted by the
regional blood center because they agreed to be paid less than the
official rate of $47 for about a half-pint of blood.
"Was their blood properly checked? We are not sure," she said.
Officials say they cannot comment on Skryabina's allegations until their
investigation is over. Authorities do say, however, that five blood
donors who are suspected to be HIV-carriers weren't found at their
registered addresses.
Parents in this city of 400,000 are trying to conduct their own
investigation. They say regional health officials were aware of the
outbreak in March, and have been trying to cover it up by pulling pages
from the infected toddlers' treatment records to eliminate any mention
of blood transfusions.
The parents allege that up to 40 HIV-infected children aged 3 and under
have died, but the true cause of the deaths was being concealed or
attributed to diseases such as cirrhosis. Authorities declined to
comment on these allegations, too, pending the investigation.
Some 13,000 children who were possibly infected have yet to be tested.
Adults, too, could be infected: so far, three mothers of infected
toddlers have tested positive for HIV.
Lawmaker Satybaldy Ibragimov says nothing will improve until Kazakhstan
roots out corruption, which penetrates even universities where future
doctors are graded according to the amount of money they give professors
- and later treat people based on their ability to pay.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev's government has taken tough action. The
health minister and the regional governor were fired this month, and
several top regional health officials, the head of the regional blood
center and several senior doctors are under criminal investigation.
New governor Omyrzak Shukeyev, former mayor of the capital Astana,
called the situation in Shymkent's health care system "a catastrophe."
He ordered an appraisal of medical staff in the region to root out
incompetent or corrupt staff.
Shukeyev, under orders from Nazarbayev to urgently resolve the crisis,
pleaded with experts at an AIDS crisis meeting this week: "I'm waiting
like nothing else for a moment when you say that the virus has been
contained."
"We cannot give you a time frame. This is going to be a lingering
epicenter of disease," replied Vyacheslav Dudnik, the region's new
health chief.
Shukeyev said the government would restructure and modernize the
region's medical institutions. Each infected toddler's family will be
given about $800 - twice the average monthly salary - in compensation
and all treatment will be paid for by the government.
The most immediate problem is the lack of local expertise on how to
treat young children with the AIDS virus.
Four AIDS specialists from UNICEF and several experts from Russia have
been asked to help. But for now, said Sagdat Masaurov, whose
18-month-old grandson is infected, "nobody can tell us where to go, what
to do and how."
Officially, by the end of 2004 Kazakhstan had about 4,700 HIV/AIDS
cases, but the real number is believed to be higher. In the first six
months of this year, the country recorded 828 new HIV carriers and 70
AIDS patients, a 70 percent increase over 2005.
Parents carrying toddlers come in a steady flow to the rundown two-story
AIDS center in Shymkent for HIV tests.
In the center's courtyard, anxious-looking parents with HIV-infected
children await examinations by doctors. Children can be heard crying.
Eighteen-month old Baurzhan Alseitov sat in his mother's arms, a blank
look on his face. His father, Kanat Alseitov, was afraid the child's
listlessness indicated the virus was already sapping his little body.
"He was restless and cried all night. He doesn't want to walk anymore,"
the father said.