AEGiS-AP: Man charged with causing death of a boy in Vietnam with HIV-infected needle

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Man charged with causing death of a boy in Vietnam with HIV-infected needle

Associated Press - Wednesday, December 4, 2002

HANOI, Vietnam - Police in northern Vietnam charged a man on Wednesday with causing the death of a 6-year-old boy by stabbing him with an HIV -infected hypodermic needle.

Pham Van Thang, of northern Haiphong, died of AIDS on Nov. 25 after Nguyen Xuan Truong allegedly injected him with the needle in June last year during a quarrel with Thang's family, said a police officer from Haiphong.

Truong, an HIV carrier currently serving a separate 30-month jail sentence for robbery, was charged with "deliberately harming the health of other people," a crime that carries a penalty of up to 15 years in jail, the officer said on condition of anonymity.

The boy's parents had sent many letters urging police to investigate, the officer said, and the case has been widely reported in the state-controlled media.

So far, more than 56,000 people in Vietnam have tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and more than 4,600 have died from the disease since the country's first case was detected in 1990, according to government figures.

Health experts estimate that the real number of HIV carriers is at least 135,000 people. Intravenous drug use is believed responsible for most of the infections.

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