Ministry of Health: There is"“shared responsibility" in failure to inform HIV patients of their disease

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SANTIAGO.- The Minister of Health, Jeannette Vega, has stated that there is a shared responsibility in the case of 25 patients at the Iquique Hospital who were not informed that they had been infected with the HIV virus. Four of the patients later died.

During a conversation with Radio Agricultura, Minister Vega explained that there is "a restriction put upon us by the law. We cannot contact these people of our own volition". "They have to come to the medical center voluntarily in order to be notified, since it is such a stigmatized disease that it requires case confidentiality", she added.

The case came under public scrutiny after the death of 34 year-old Dearmny Aguilar Campusano, who passed away only three weeks after being admitted to the hospital for pneumonia.

During his hospitalization, medical personnel found out that he had tested positive for HIV in May of 2004 but had failed to inform him, despite his having returned to the hospital on various occasions with numerous illnesses.