An HIV-positive man who might have consciously
passed on the deadly virus to more than 200 sexual partners has been arrested
in Italy.
A spokesman for police
in Ancona, a city on Italy’s eastern Adriatic coast, told dpa on Thursday that
35-year-old Claudio Pinti had been arrested two days earlier.
Despite having been
diagnosed “for at least 11 years,’’ he did not take precautions nor warn his
partners about his condition, Ancona police said in a written statement.
When officers
apprehended him, Mr Pinti declared himself a “negationist’’ on the existence of
HIV, police said.
The virus is known to
cause AIDS.
In a press conference
on Wednesday, police said Mr Pinti was a regular user of dating websites and
might have infected more than 200 people.
He was caught after
one of his most recent partners checked herself into hospital after feeling ill
and discovered she had contracted the virus.
Authorities urged
potential victims to contact police, and in a breach of usual practice,
released a picture of the suspect so people who could recognise him. The police spokesman
said several calls have come in and are being verified.
“People are very
reluctant to come forward because of the shame,’’ he said.
Thanks to medical advances, life expectancy
for HIV and AIDS patients has greatly increased in recent years, but the
disease still killed one million people in 2016, according to the World Health
Organisation.
In a similar case in
2017, a Rome court sentenced a man to 24 years’ imprisonment for infecting more
than 30 people with HIV, including a pregnant woman who passed on the disease
to her son.
- DPA/NAN
No comments:
Post a Comment