Govt tables AIDS Bill

Jail for all who spread AIDS. Government yesterday tabled the Offences Against the Person (HIV) Bill in the House of Representatives which would now make it a crime to knowingly transmit the AIDS virus. And the bill also penalises institutions who, through blood transfusions or through organ or tissue transplants, infect a patient with HIV “owing to gross negligence.” The bill states that persons who “intentionally” spread HIV or “recklessly expose” another person/s to the dreaded disease would be imprisoned for ten or seven years respectively. The bill states if the conduct of the HIV-infected individual results in the death of another person, the person should also be charged for manslaughter. The bill “makes it an indictable offence, if a person who knows, or ought reasonably to know, he is HIV positive, does not so inform another person and engages in conduct, including intimate conduct, with that person.”