Number of people with HIV infection on rise in northern Tajikistan

News Desk

The rise in cases of intentional infection of HIV among the people in the Tajikistan’s northern province of Sughd is a source of concern for Tajik officials, reports an online news portal, Asia-Plus.

In a report released at a news conference in Khujand on February 15, Sughd chief prosecutor Habibullo Vohidov revealed that six criminal proceedings were instituted in the province last year for 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 1,507 men and 904 women, have been registered in the province since 2001,” said the prosecutor.  Of them, 714 have died.”

Criminal transmission of HIV is the intentional or reckless infection of a person with the human immunodeficiency virus.  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 US, 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.