South Kazakhstan: Ninth mother diagnosed with HIV
A Kazakh woman has become the ninth mother to become infected with the virus that causes Aids amid an outbreak among children in southern Kazakhstan blamed on doctors’ negligence, a news agency reported today.
The woman from the southern city of Shymkent tested positive for HIV last week, several months after her infant child was infected in a local hospital, Natalya Babina, the chief doctor of the regional Aids centre, told the Kazakhstan Today agency.
Health officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
It was unclear exactly how the transmission occurred or whether the mother acquired the virus directly from her child.
The Central Asian nation was left shocked after 81 children and eight mothers tested positive for HIV after receiving injections or blood transfusions at hospitals in Shymkent, some 1,000 miles south of the capital Astana.
Seven children have already died of Aids-related diseases, and an inborn heart condition caused the death of an eighth.
Authorities have tested thousands of mothers and children who they fear may have been at risk of contracting HIV, while nationwide inspections revealed numerous cases of incompetence and corruption among doctors and nurses.
