AEGiS-AFP News: Thailand-AIDS: Thai police search for AIDS needle attacker

Thailand-AIDS: Thai police search for AIDS needle attacker
Agence France-Presse - July 26, 1999

BANGKOK, July 26 (AFP) - A men believed to be mentally unstable is terrorising women in Bangkok with a needle he claims is infected with the virus which leads to AIDS, police said Monday.

Police said they are searching for a man who has stabbed at least seven women with needles in the past two days.

Police said seven women in two districts of Bangkok had complained of being stabbed by a man on a motorcycle who shouted "Now you've got AIDS" as he sped off.

Health officials have asked the public not to panic over the attacks, saying there was only a one percent chance the women had been infected with the HIV virus that leads to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

"The virus can't stay in the air for a long time and using a needle to stab other people is a difficult way to infect someone," health ministry AIDS division director Chiyos Kunanusondhi said.

The women had been tested and proved negative for HIV but doctors said they could not be 100 percent sure until more tests were conducted in a few months.

Chiyos said victims should clean the wound and seek immediate advice from the nearest hospital.

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