HIV man guilty of infecting Lovers

[jabarti]

(Can you believe this evil and cold blooded man is from Wajir, North East , Kenya.)

 

I wonder how many like him (her) are out there, infecting and destroying innocent life’s.

 

PROTECTION IS THE BEST PREVENTION. BUT BEING A MUSLIM ABSTAIN TILL MARRIED IS THE BEST CHOICE THAT’S IF WE WANT TO LIVE IN HEALTH AND DIE WITH DIGNITY.

 

JABARTI

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A man diagnosed with HIV has been found guilty of "callously" infecting two women with the virus in a landmark legal case. The jury at Inner London Crown Court found 37-year-old Mohammed Dica guilty of two counts of "biological" grievous bodily harm on Tuesday. Father-of-three Dica, from Mitcham, south-west London, had told police both women knew of his condition before they had sex. But the court heard he told his first victim he had undergone a vasectomy and pursued the second victim, a mother of two, repeatedly telling her he loved her and wanted her to have his children. He played with my life and he's destroyed it Dica's second victim Read the victim's story

The jury of six men and six women were told that both women could be dead in 10 years. The case is believed to be the first successful prosecution in England and Wales for sexually transmitting HIV. Prosecutor Mark Gadsden told the jury that grievous bodily harm usually described a physical attack but could include psychological harm from being stalked or getting nuisance calls. He said: "He coldly and callously infected these two women." Appeal likely Judge Nicholas Philpot rejected an application for bail and a request for a psychiatric report - but said he would adjourn sentencing if further concerns were raised. He added: "If I had to sentence him today there is no doubt he would be going to prison, and for a long time." Dica, who may only have a few years to live, is planning an appeal against the verdict. His second victim, known only as Deborah, sobbed as the jury returned its verdict. Mohammed Dica is the first person to be successfully prosecuted in England and Wales for passing on the Aids virus, HIV, through sex Conviction is a landmark legal ruling

She said: "He played with my life and he's destroyed it. This has been a tragic part of my life. "Not only did I find out that I had contracted HIV but also discovered that the person who gave it to me, whom I trusted and loved, had been infected for five years and devastated my life and the life of another woman with intent. "Sadly this is not over for me. "My sentence has begun but I can now move on knowing that justice has been done." Others infected Speaking after the verdict, Metropolitan Police Detective Sergeant Jo Goodall suggested Dica may have infected others. "This is a landmark case, being the first successful prosecution in England and Wales, for inflicting grievous bodily harm by infecting, in this case two victims, with a serious sexually transmittable disease, namely HIV, in over a century. "I admire the courage of the two females in coming forward with this allegation. People with HIV should feel able to disclose their HIV status without fear of rejection or discrimination Derek Bodell, National Aids Trust chief executive

"I hope that the outcome of this case will encourage other victims to come forward, especially since it may well be that there are other victims of this man." Anger at verdict Derek Bodell, National Aids Trust chief executive, said: "Today's case is a tragedy for all parties. "Treating cases like this as a criminal offence will not prevent such incidents in the future, and on the contrary may be counterproductive. "People with HIV should feel able to disclose their HIV status without fear of rejection or discrimination." The HIV charity George House Trust said the case set a "dangerous and frightening precedent for all people living with HIV." In a statement it said: "Every adult has a responsibility for their own consenting sexual behaviour and for protecting themselves. "Criminalising the transmission of HIV simply puts all of the responsibility on people living with the virus. "HIV positive people already live with uncertainty, discrimination and stigma. "This court case does absolutely nothing to improve public education about HIV. It does nothing to help create an environment where people with HIV can live without discrimination." Chief executive Michelle Reid said: "This case means that people with HIV will now have to live with the fear of prosecution. "It will mean fewer people being open about their HIV status; fewer people taking HIV tests because unless you¿re HIV status is known you cannot 'knowingly' infect someone and fewer people benefiting from support and health care. "This is a dangerous step backwards to the climate of blame and ignorance of the 1980's."

 

BBC.

[Sophist]

On the margin

 

Breaking through taboos about Aids held by the UK's

African community makes the sufferers hard to reach

and therefore hard to treat, reports Mary Braid

 

Wednesday November 28, 2001

The Guardian

 

In a packed little room at an east London health centre,

Mohamud Yasin is telling his story to a dozen Somali women.

The group, previously restless, is suddenly hushed and still.

Yasin, 27, who fled the warlords of Somalia two years ago, is

describing how he went to a GP after he arrived in Britain with

what he thought were symptoms of malaria.

 

He speaks slowly and confidently in his mother tongue, but he

swallows now and then. For this is the first time he has told this

story in public to members of his own community. Stigma has,

until now, kept him silent.

 

"The doctor sent me to St Mary's hospital for tests," he says.

"Three days later the hospital told me I was HIV positive. The

relative I was staying with in London was with me. By three that

afternoon, he had put all my belongings on the pavement outside

his house. He had telephoned everyone I knew to tell them I had

Aids and I was dying. I was so shocked by everything and I had

no one."

 

Yasin tells the women he felt suicidal during those dark, early

months. The women have never met someone from their own

community brave enough to admit to being HIV positive. In

Britain, new HIV infection rates are now higher among

heterosexuals than homosexuals, and the majority of the new

heterosexual infections are within African communities, but

stigma and denial within those communities is hampering this

latest battle with the virus.

 

A bad situation is exacerbated by fear among HIV agencies that

publicity highlighting African communities as a high risk group

could cause a racist backlash, particularly against asylum

seekers and refugees. Meanwhile, too many Africans, whether

infected in Africa or Britain, are presenting so late with

symptoms that they are beyond the help of the antiretrovirals

that can remove the automatic death sentence of Aids.

 

"The communities will not let us in," complains the woman

health specialist leading this Somali Aids session. Originally

from Uganda, the specialist, employed by the local authority, is

fed up with imams who think sex education only encourages

promiscuity and who insist that there is no pre-marital sex in

their communities. She is frustrated also with communities

which deny the Aids threat and - despite the sympathetic

response of the women today - generally ostracise those

infected. She sighs at the widespread reluctance of men to wear

condoms. At the previous week's session, when condoms were

produced, one woman stormed out, shouting: "Disgusting". At

the end of this session, at least one woman still thinks that Aids

is "a punishment from God".

 

Part of the trouble, according to this health worker, who needs

to remain anonymous, is that Somali refugees - unlike

Ugandans - saw few cases of Aids back home. Uganda was

among the first African countries to see its population ravaged

by Aids and among the very few to introduce a successful

national campaign of sex education. And in Britain, the Ugandan

community has the most well established anti-Aids groups.

 

Social marginalisation and poor English makes newly arrived

Somalis hard to reach. "At first I thought I was the only Somali

with HIV," says Yasin, who was encouraged by St Mary's

Paddington, west London - his main support when he was

rejected by his community - to set up his own Horn of Africa HIV

support group two years ago. It now has 60 members and every

one of them, according to the founder, has their own story of

rejection and stigmatisation. But Yasin is the only one who will

talk at public meetings.

 

Yasin set up the group from home but he now works out of the

Globe Centre at Stepney Green, east London, trying to shake

up his community's complacency by arguing for sympathy,

acceptance and understanding. "People like me are not coming

forward because the community does not show support or love

and so they are bearing the burden alone," Yasin tells the

Somali women. Later, he says that Somalis have kind hearts

and he knows they would respond better if they had more

information about HIV.

 

Lisa Power, head of policy at Aids charity the Terrence Higgins

Trust, agrees that the huge stigma surrounding the disease in

African communities is helping the virus spread. The trust is

battling against evangelical churches that advise black people

with HIV to give up treatment, as well as the tendency of African

refugees to delay HIV testing because of the widespread

assumption that a positive test will not help an asylum

application. But Power also acknowledges a reluctance among

Aids organisations to highlight the high risk in African

communities.

 

"I understand the fear about increasing prejudice, but it is doing

no one any favours," says Power, who sees strong parallels with

another "denial of the reality" in the 1980s. "Then there was a

fear that if gay men were targeted in particular, it would fuel

anti-gay prejudice," she says. "It did the gay male community

such a disservice. I hear that same view now in relation to

African communities."

 

If all this was not enough, there is an additional difficulty. In

Britain, expertise in fighting HIV rests in the gay community, but

African men in particular are wary of being associated with

anything gay. Graeme Parker, project manager of the Globe,

says that only a few years ago the centre was "a place where

gay white men waited to die". Now half the Globe's clients are

black heterosexuals. Parker admits there are tensions in trying

to serve both groups, though centres like the Globe must find a

way if they are to secure future funding.

 

At Terrence Higgins, Power recognises that black men

especially are not accepting of gay expertise. But she adds that

prejudice works both ways. "Racism doesn't stop just because

you are gay," she says.

 

The Ugandan health worker talks with sympathy about the

rejection of her boss, a gay man, by some African communities.

"Think how hurt he feels," she says. "He has all that experience

and he wants to help." However, she adds that to have

maximum impact in the Somali community, Yasin may have to

distance himself from the Globe. "The Somali community still

sees the Globe as a gay centre and homosexuality as a sin,"

she says.

 

Consultation on the government's long-awaited national strategy

on sexual Health and HIV ends on December 21. In her

submission, Winnie Sseruma, who chairs the African HIV policy

network, will ask the government to channel more money for HIV

and Aids education through African community groups. "People

listen to people who speak a language they understand," she

says. She is torn by the question of greater openness about the

high risk in African communities. While she believes publicity

would help get the message through to the vulnerable, she also

fears increased prejudice. "It is tricky," Sseruma says. "I wish I

could say there was one answer."

 

· Public health special report to coincide with Word Aids Day, at

SocietyGuardian.co.uk/publichealth