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Kyrgyz medics jailed for infecting children with HIV

Tue Aug 5, 2008 10:31am EDT

BISHKEK, Aug 5 (Reuters) - A court in the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan has sentenced three doctors to three-year jail terms for negligence that led to 24 children being infected with HIV, a local official said on Tuesday.

The official, who asked not to be named, said the court in the southern Osh region gave five other doctors suspended three-year sentences and found six doctors not guilty. The court announced its verdict at a closed hearing last week.

The official said the HIV outbreak, which occurred last year, was a result of blood transfusions.

The Kyrgyz Healthcare Ministry declined to comment on Tuesday.

HIV/AIDS levels have skyrocketed across Central Asia since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, mainly among drug addicts and people in prisons. The region lies on the main heroin trafficking route from Afghanistan to Europe. (Reporting by Olga Dzyubenko; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Dominic Evans)


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