Six children die, 76 infected in Kazakh HIV case
Six children have died in Kazakhstan and at least 76 have been infected after transfusions of blood suspected of containing HIV, officials said on Tuesday.
Health Minister Anatoly Dernovoi told a government meeting the virus was also found in eight of the children’s mothers.
Health officials have tested 10,000 children for the virus near the southern city of Shymkent since the outbreak started earlier this year. The number of reported cases has been growing steadily over the past weeks.
The children may have also been infected because of the use of unsterilised medical instruments in hospitals, officials have said.
HIV/AIDS infection levels have increased dramatically across Central Asia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, mainly among young drug addicts and in prisons.
Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov, speaking at the same meeting, said negligence was to blame. “Once again we are facing ... the so-called human factor when negligence, lack of care and incompetence lead to such tragic results,” he said.
Dernovoi’s predecessor, Yerbolat Dosayev, and the governor of the region including Shymkent were fired last month because of “serious shortcomings” linked to the rise in the number of people infected with HIV in the area.
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