The below makes me so incredibly glad that we don't live in Almaty - heartbreaking.

21 doctors, officials face charges in Kazakhstan for causing HIV outbreak
Provided by: Canadian Press
Jan. 9, 2007[

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) - Twenty-one doctors and health officials have been charged with criminal offences that caused an HIV outbreak in southern Kazakhstan, the chief prosecutor's office said Tuesday.

Blood transfusions from unchecked donors or contaminated needles have been blamed for the infections among 84 children, most of them under the age of three. Some 12 mothers also have tested positive for HIV since the first child cases were registered in the city of Shymkent last summer.

Seven children have already died of AIDS-related diseases, while a heart condition caused the death of an eighth, officials said.

The Chief Prosecutor's office said in a statement Tuesday that it had completed its investigations and charged 21 doctors and health officials with negligence. Some of them were also charged with bribery, extortion and theft of state funds, it said.

All cases have been transferred to court, the statement said.

Authorities have checked thousands of children who were feared to have contracted HIV at hospitals in Shymkent, some 1,600 kilometres south of the capital, Astana.

The Central Asian nation has been shocked by the outbreak, and subsequent nationwide inspections have revealed numerous cases of incompetence and corruption among doctors and nurses.

This is not an incident. The same is going on in Libya. Here is the full article

Thanks for the link fozzie - it's enough to make one weep. What a waste of human lives and I find the entire thing just mind-boggling. Yup, I grumble at our tax level here sometimes but just reading stuff like this makes me realize just how incredibly lucky I am to be living here.

How anyone could willfully inflict this scourge on a fellow human being defies comprehension.No one is safe,no matter where we live.Aids doesn't discriminate.Aids in Africa has killed 17 million and 25 million are expected to die from this dreadful disease.There are millions of children in Africa who have no Mother or Father,and a lot of the children are born with Aids through no fault of their own.

These medicos and nurses who are guilty af such a crime against humanity,should be dealt with in the strongest way imagineable,because they didn't show and compassion.Iv'e no sympathy for them whatsoever.
I have provided a graphic link merely to show what these doctors and nurses were inflicting on others.

http://www.time.com/time/2001/aidsinafrica/photo.html

As far as being dealt with don't worry. Mr Khadaffi will do that in the most serious way. (Most likely capital punishment) The rightning thing about these situations is where is this world going to. I am in my early 50's but I sincerrely worry for my kids who have still a long way to go

Truly a heartbreaking story. Those that have knowingly inflicted this disease on others should suffer the same punishment, and have AIDS ravage their bodies.