A 43-YEAR-OLD Greek man has been arrested in Nicosia’s Eleftheria Square after his mother called police from Greece to warn them that he was an AIDS carrier and that his trip to Cyprus could be dangerous.
Police told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that after an investigation in collaboration with immigration police the man was found at Eleftheria Square at 6pm on Wednesday. He was then taken to Nicosia General Hospital to be tested for AIDS.
The man was deported later that night although the hospital had not yet released any official test results.
An immigration official told the Cyprus Mail that the Greek man was in a “bad state” when they found him at Eleftheria Square and that he had “requested to return to his mother in Greece”.
According to Simerini newspaper, the man claimed that he had not had sex with anyone while he was in Cyprus and then “put forth several excuses” as to why he had come to the island in the first place.
Police said that the man was arrested under Immigration Law 6.1(c). The law allows for any foreigner entering the country who is a carrier of a transmissible disease and considered a danger to public health, either due to the nature of the disease or because he or she is not taking prescribed medication, to be arrested and deported.
Transmissible diseases include HIV or any of its derivatives; hepatitis and any of its derivatives; tuberculosis; and any other serious illness that an exposed person could have a reasonable expectation of contracting from the carrier.
According to a recent report by the Health Ministry’s Laura Papantoniou, who heads the National Aids programme, there has been an increase in the past few years among foreigners living permanently in Cyprus who have AIDS.
Seventy-four people in Cyprus have died so far of AIDS. As of the end of June, there have been 502 cases of people diagnosed with HIV in Cyprus. Almost 300 of them live permanently in Cyprus. The ratio of infected men to infected women in Cyprus is roughly 4 to 1.
How do HIV and AIDS differ?
HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus that attacks the immune system and damages it, reducing its ability to fight germs.
There are many stages during the HIV infection. AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) is an advanced HIV stage, resulting after HIV has done significant damage to the immune system. AIDS is diagnosed when the immune system is weak, as shown by a CD4 count of less than 200 cells/millilitre, or by the presence of certain opportunistic infections, tumours or wasting.
A person who is HIV positive (meaning a person who has HIV) does not necessarily have AIDS, but a person who has AIDS is HIV positive. If a person has been diagnosed with AIDS as some point in their lives, the diagnosis of AIDS, as opposed to HIV positive alone, will remain, even if there is a significant improvement in health.
