A Swiss music teacher and amateur acupuncturist has been charged with infecting 16 people with HIV between 2001 and 2005.
Prosecutors say the man, Maurice Goeller, used his unlicensed
acupuncturist job as an excuse to stick needles infected with the
AIDS-causing virus into over a dozen people, including his music school
students. It’s not clear whether the HIV infections were the result of
using non-sterile acupuncture needles, or whether Goeller was
intentionally infecting his clients.
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According to a UPI news story,
“Officials began investigating Goeller after a complaint in 2005 from
student Thomas Kaiser, who was diagnosed as HIV positive and told medics
he could only have been infected from Goeller’s injections.
Investigators ultimately uncovered 15 others with similar stories.”
Goeller was first accused of the crime last year, when, according to CBS News,
he “was indicted by a five-judge panel in Bern-Mittelland regional
court on charges of intentionally spreading human disease and causing
serious bodily harm, offenses that carry maximum penalties of five to 10
years respectively, said the regional prosecutor’s office in Bern, the
Swiss capital.” Police said that the case has taken years to investigate
and prosecute because of the difficulty in identifying victims while
safeguarding their medical privacy.
Acupuncture needles, because they are claimed to work by
triggering “energy meridians” which are near the skin’s surface — and,
incidentally, unknown to medical science
— are typically not inserted as deeply into the body as hypodermic
needles used to inject or retrieve fluids from the body. Nonetheless,
anything that breaks the skin’s surface has the potential to cause
infection, especially if it is not properly sterilized.
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The concern over AIDS-infected needles is common in many urban
legends, and caused a widespread scare in July 2012 when needles were
found in airline food. In a column I wrote on the topic, I explained why
the concern that those needles could cause AIDS was likely unfounded. HIV cannot exist intact for long outside the body.
However this case may be different. If Goeller had access to a
supply of HIV-infected blood during the time he was allegedly infecting
people, it is possible he could have committed the crimes. Goeller’s
trial is expected to begin soon.
http://news.discovery.com/human/health/acupuncturist-accused-of-infecting-16-people-with-hiv-130318.htm