POLICE are to investigate reports that AIDS carriers are deliberately spreading the disease.
Health Minister Frixos Savvides confirmed yesterday that an investigation will be launched after he met Stella Michaelidou of the Limassol-based Support Centre for AIDS Carriers (KIFA) to discuss her allegations.
Savvides confirmed that the ministry is investigating the information provided at the meeting and that given the criminal nature of the alleged actions the police would be involved.
Michaelidou described the 20-minute meeting as “positive”, but admitted she was left under no illusions about her public responsibility and the danger of making “inflammatory comments” to the media. Information about the alleged deliberate spreading of the disease was given in a separate meeting with members of Savvides’ office.
The minister defended the government’s record on AIDS, claiming that “Cyprus is ranked in the top two countries in the world for the treatment of AIDS, for which it has received international recognition”. He added that he had personally addressed the United Nations at a conference on the spread of the disease and was confident that present government policy was tackling the problem effectively.
Michaelidou, who works directly with AIDS carriers, feels that Cypriot society alienates sufferers who are made to feel like “social outcasts”.
She also believes there is a public conception that AIDS is still a ‘gay disease’ — “even though European research demonstrates that heterosexuals and drug users out-number homosexual AIDS carriers. Everybody needs to be responsible and take precautions.”
Savvides confirmed there would be more meetings with Michaelidou to co-operate with KIFA in tackling AIDS.
Defending the government’s position, he pointed to plans to implement a policy where registered sufferers are given priority in applications to certain government positions and that help may be given to Michaelidou in setting up a hospice for AIDS sufferers. However, Savvides also emphasised that non-governmental organisations like KIFA were responsible for helping sufferers, not for making “potentially panic-spreading statements which contravene international guidelines on public announcements about AIDS”.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
