LUCKNOW, India: A fake doctor treating poor villagers in northern India for colds, coughs and diarrhoea has infected at least 21 of them with HIV by using contaminated syringes and needles, a health official said Tuesday. Sushil Choudhury, the official, said police were looking for Rajendra Yadav, who fled Bangarmau, a small town in Uttar Pradesh state, after the HIV infections were detected in December last year. With India's health care system facing a massive shortage of doctors and hospitals, millions of poor people seek fake doctors for cheap treatment. India had 2.1 million people living with HIV at the end of 2016, according to a UNAIDS report. HIV -- or the human immunodeficiency virus -- is transmitted through blood transfusion, use of infected needles and syringes, unprotected sex, or from mother to child.

Source: Bangkok Post February 06, 2018 08:03 UTC