The law enforcement authorities of the northern province of Sughd are seriously concerned over the increase in the number of cases of intentional infection of people with HIV in the area.
In a report released at a news conference in Khujand, Sughd chief prosecutor Habibullo Vohidov revealed on February 15 that six criminal proceedings were instituted in the province last year under the provisions of Article 125 of the country’s Penal Code – intentional infection of a person with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
“Meanwhile, seven such criminal proceedings were instituted in Sughd last month alone,” Vohidov said.
According to him, 387 new HIV-infection cases were registered in the province last year.
“In all, 2,411 people living with HIV, including 1507 men and 904 women, have been registered in the province since 2001,” said the prosecutor. “714 of them have died.”
Criminal transmission of HIV is the intentional or reckless infection of a person with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This is often conflated, in laws and in discussion, with criminal exposure to HIV, which does not require the transmission of the virus and often, as in the cases of spitting and biting, does not include a realistic means of transmission. Some countries or jurisdictions, including some areas of the U.S., have enacted laws expressly to criminalize HIV transmission or exposure, charging those accused with criminal transmission of HIV. Others, including the United Kingdom, charge the accused under existing laws with such crimes as murder, fraud (Canada), manslaughter, attempted murder, or assault.
