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South Kazakhstani children got HIV from a single source CDC

Kazakhstan Materials 21 November 2006 16:40 (UTC +04:00)

(gazeta.kz) - Specialists suppose that South Kazakhstani children got the HIV from a single donor, reports Trend.

"Most likely, as it may be supposed, they got the HIV from a single donor through a shared dose of blood," - Mikhail Favorov, director of the CDC (the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention of the US Department of Health and Human Services) for Central Asian programmes, said.

He explained that CDC specialists together with workers of the National AIDS Centre carried out molecular biological tests that revealed that a part of the HIV-infected children had identical viruses. "It means that the transfusion of blood was one of the key factors for this outbreak. The structure of the other children's virus is also very close to it, which can be attested, they could get the virus from an incorrect use of medical instruments," - Mr. Favorov said.

At the same time no HIV-infected donors have been identified among workers of the regional healthcare department.

The regional prosecutor's office told Kazakhstan Today correspondent that an investigating group working on the case of the HIV-infected children keeps working and that it has not given a final verdict so far.

80 HIV cases have been revealed among South Kazakhstani children, eight of them died.

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