Uzbekistan: Tashkent Disputes Report on HIV Scandal

The Uzbek Ministry of Heath is denying claims that 43 children in Namangan contracted HIV at a regional hospital.

The move comes after a report distributed by the British Broadcasting Corp., citing health officials in the Ferghana Valley, alleged that the children, mostly newborn babies, had been infected. The broadcaster said the cases were discovered in October and had been referred to prosecutors.

In disputing the BBC story, the head of the ministry's main Department for Sanitary and Epidemiology Control, Saidmurod Saidaliyev, told the Regnum news agency that "there are indeed HIV cases in Namangan, but this has nothing to do either with this hospital, or with the use of disposable syringes, and with 43 children and the newborns contracting HIV."

"Everything is fine in this hospital. There are not 43 HIV positive children and the source of this information in the press is unclear to us," the official added.

In 2007, 21 medics in Kazakhstan were found guilty of inadvertently infecting 49 babies with HIV through blood transfusions. In August of this year, nine Kyrgyz doctors were found guilty of infecting 24 children with the virus.