Dealing with HIV criminals

WE FIND it quite annoying that simple, obvious, necessary and accepted solutions to a number of serious problems take so long to be implemented. Mysteriously enough, some of these solutions are allowed to lapse ineffectively into some kind of bureaucratic limbo. One notorious example of this is the intended introduction of the breathalyser, the well known test for determining drunken drivers. For more than two decades the authorities have zealously proclaimed the need for this mechanism as a means of dealing with the high rate of accidents on our roads. Up to now: No breathalyser. More than four years ago, legislation virtually banning the owning and breeding of pit bulls in our country, the Dangerous Dogs Bill, was passed in parliament but, strangely enough, it is yet to appear on our statute books. The reason, we understand, is the failure of the Minister of Works to approve the accompanying regulations.

While the fiddling goes on, innocent persons are being savaged and killed by these vicious animals, with no accountability being exacted from their owners. On Tuesday, we had Prof Courtenay Bartholomew, Director of the Medical Research Foundation, calling for the criminalisation of the act of persons deliberately or knowingly infecting innocent partners with HIV. Prof Bartholomew, however, is not the first official to demand such a measure. With the relatively high incidence of HIV/AIDS in TT, the need for such legislation was recognised several years ago. Our understanding is that a bill to this effect has actually been drafted and is now being reviewed by the Attorney General. When, we must wonder, will this piece of legislation come before Parliament, and when will it become enforceable law? As far as we are concerned, it is a vicious act of betrayal for any HIV patient, or person who knows that he or she carries the virus, to have unprotected sex with a non-positive partner.

AIDS, the killer disease that develops from the virus, is still incurable and therefore such an act must be regarded as virtually dooming the non-positive partner to an early or premature death. Speaking at the Health Ministry’s official launch of the HIV/AIDS Health Sector Plan, Prof Bartholomew noted: “We also have to face the reality, for example, of patients who know their HIV/AIDS positive status and are still having unprotected sexual contacts with people, some of whom have died because of these contacts.” After some 25 years of the mounting incidence of AIDS in our country, it is time for legislation to hold these HIV criminals accountable for their treachery. Speaking to the media last June, Planning and Development Minister Camille Robinson Regis said she expected “stiff penalties” to be part of the legislation dealing with people who deliberately infect others with HIV.

But the Minister could not say when the relevant amendment to the Sexual Offences Act would be presented to Parliament. In our view, it cannot be too soon. As far as the treatment of this dreaded disease is concerned, Prof Bartholomew has made some alarming observations. There are doctors, he said, who dare to treat AIDS patients although they had no knowledge or training in the field. He spoke also of  a couple of doctors practising what he calls “therapeutic anathema” by treating patients “not with the necessary triple therapy, but with two-drug therapy and even monotherapy!” Even worse, Prof Bartholomew referred to instances of persons who have been misdiagnosed and treated by pseudo-specialists in the field, although these patients were definitely HIV-negative. This kind of practice, we believe, also borders on the criminal, a sad commentary on the ethical state of the medical profession.