China to prosecute deliberate AIDS infections
BEIJING, Dec 6 (Reuters) – China will prosecute people who deliberately infect others with HIV, state media said on Wednesday. “Those who know they are infected with AIDS or are sick with AIDS and deliberately infect others will be severely punished according to the law,” the Beijing News said, citing an unnamed police officer as telling an AIDS prevention workshop. It provided no details on what kind of sentences would be meted out, nor how police would prove the virus had knowingly been passed on by someone. Police would also deal just as severely with criminal suspects who have AIDS as those who do not, the report said. “For criminal suspects infected with AIDS, they cannot not be dealt with or given free rein just because they are infected,” it quoted another unnamed official with the State Council’s AIDS prevention office as adding.
Story, from Reuters, on AlertNet.