Ministry of Health Confirms HIV Cases Among Residents of Lordegan Village
Following reports of HIV infection among residents of “Chenar Mahmoudi” village in Lordegan, an Iranian Health Ministry official confirmed the news, but dismissed claims that the virus was transmitted through contaminated syringes at a health clinic as “false.”
On Wednesday, October 10, a video was circulated on social media showing residents of Chenar Mahmoudi village gathered in front of the Lordegan County Governor’s office in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, strongly protesting the role of the Health Ministry in this incident.
The protesters claim that a health clinic worker used contaminated and shared syringes to conduct blood sugar tests for village residents, which resulted in “a large number” of residents contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
However, Mohammad Mahdi Gooya, head of the Communicable Disease Management Center at Iran’s Health Ministry, denied this. He stated: “Although some people infected with this virus have been identified, the method of transmission was not contaminated syringes.”
He then emphasized that he cannot provide information about how the virus was transmitted to residents, as this is “confidential information between patient and physician.”
The Health Ministry official’s remarks came after an Iranian judicial official announced the arrest of a health worker who was operating in the area.
Ahmad Reza Bahrami, Chief Justice of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, said: “Some claim that one of the health workers employed at one of the health centers, when drawing blood for tests, used shared syringes instead of using a separate syringe for each person. This individual is currently in custody.”
He announced that a legal case has been opened regarding this matter and “other officials are also following up on the matter to identify its source.”
Meanwhile, the Lordegan representative in the Islamic Consultative Assembly described the existing reports as “contradictory.”
Mohammad Khaldi Sardashti stated: “All departments in the province and the assembly of representatives are involved in this matter, and repeated sessions have been held on this issue since last week until now.”
The representative further added: “So far the reports have been contradictory, but suspicious cases have also been reported… Test results are still not precise and no definitive answer has been given.”
In April of this year, the head of Iran’s AIDS Research Center reported that the latest number of people infected with this disease in the country was approximately forty thousand.
Source: Radio Farda
