Benghazi (Libya) AIDS epidemic

Have you heard of the Benghazi AIDS epidemic? If you haven't, and I think you probably haven't, I'm writing about it here for you. Give it a read...

Click this link for extended information

It is said that 5 Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor intentionally infected hundreds of children with HIV in a pediatric hospital in Benghazi, Libya, in the 1990s.

Although a number of doctors and nurses, foreign and Libyan, have been charged with negligence, some of them -- only the foreigners -- are in jail, facing the death penalty. (NY Times)

However, European governments and rights groups say the Libyan Health Ministry failed to screen blood products adequately, and allowed poor sterilization practices by the staff of Al Fateh Children's Hospital.

Two of Europe's most prominent AIDS specialists, Prof. Luc Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute, and Vittorio Colizzi, an Italian researcher, studied the epidemic and found that the foreign medical workers were less to blame than the hospital administration was.

In spite of the fact that Muammar Qaddafi has made peace with the West over the Lockerbie, Scotland, plane crash and promised reparations to families, and made a decision to rid his country of programs to develop nuclear and other unconventional weapons as well, he is facing one of the more difficult political problems of his leadership Libya.

There's a lot more to the story. Here's the link to my Google search.

And thanks to Declan Butler, senior reporter at Nature, here is a link that carries more information in one place than you'll ever find anywhere else about the Benghazi AIDS epidemic. the teach