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AIDS scare rocks French hospital
PARIS, France -- An elderly French man, who was treated by a medic infected with the HIV virus, contracted the disease sparking a health scare. More than 900 other patients at the Paris clinic are now being offered AIDS tests and an inquiry has been launched into the case. The 74-year-old man died from cardiovascular problems but was found to have become HIV+ three months after his operation in October 2001. A routine HIV test immediately before his operation was negative. The Jacques Cartier clinic, in southern Paris, said in a statement that the inquiry, being carried out in collaboration with the health authorities, had ruled out the possibility of contamination from a blood transfusion. It also said that no incident causing exposure to the medic's own blood had been reported during the heart bypass and valve replacement operation -- meaning no direct link had been established between him and the patient's infection. So far, 15 of the 926 patients contacted as a result of the scare, have returned to the clinic for AIDS tests, Reuters said. A clinic official said any risk to past patients should be "extremely limited." The clinic has refused to name the medic or say what his role was during the operation. In France there is no obligatory screening of doctors or patients for AIDS. The medic was discovered to be HIV-positive after a HIV-test of the entire medical team. France's biggest AIDS scandal to date was in 1985 when it emerged that hundreds of people had died after being given transfusions of blood tainted with AIDS.
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