DUSHANBE, March 1, 2013, Asia-Plus  -- A prosecutor’s office in Dushanbe’s Sino district has launched an investigation into how four children in Dushanbe have tested positive for HIV.

The investigation has been launched  following a number of articles published in the Asia-Plus newspaper: “Child Infected with HIV in Hospital?”; “My Son Infected with HIV!”; “One More HIV-Infected Child; and “Another Child Infected with HIV…”

Mukhtor Mahmoudov, the first deputy prosecutor in Dushanbe’s Sino district, says the case has been launched under the provisions of Article 125 of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – HIV exposure and transmission.

We will recall that Article 125 of Tajikistan''s new Penal Code that , which came into effect in April 2010, criminalizes HIV exposure and transmission.  Whereas knowing transmission of any other STI (Article 126) is punishable by fine, correctional labor from one to two years, or for up to six months of imprisonment, knowing HIV transmission is punishable by five to eight years of imprisonment.  This increases to eight to twelve years if more than one person is infected and/or the infected individual is a minor.  HIV exposure is punishable by up to three years of restriction of liberty, or up to two years of imprisonment.

Mahmoudov notes that four events have been consolidated into one case.  The prosecutor refrained from giving further details.

Meanwhile, the farther of one of characters of the abovementioned articles, Salim Halimov (the name is changed for ethical reasons), says that an investigator with the prosecutor’s office in Dushanbe’s Sino district has talked to him.

“The Ministry of Health (MoH) has given the runaround in a letter that it is allegedly impossible to determine the time and place where children have been infected,” said Halimov, “However, I am more than sure my son got infected with HIV in a hospital in Dushanbe, where he was undergoing medical treatment.  He was infected by their blood supplies or medical instruments.”

He stressed that in their family, only his small son has tested positive for HIV.