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Joan Stephenson, PhD

JAMA. 2007;298:1268.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

A Palestinian physician and 5 Bulgarian nurses who, despite scientific evidence to the contrary, were convicted of deliberately infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV were freed on July 24 after more than 8 years in prison. Their release was brought about by international pressure and negotiations between the European Union and the Libyan government.

After their release, the health workers were flown to Bulgaria, where they were immediately pardoned by Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov.

Scientists from the United Kingdom and Italy had demonstrated that the strains of HIV found in the children were already circulating at the hospital and in the area in the mid-1990s, before the medical workers' arrival in Libya in 1998 (de Oliveira T et al. Nature. 2006;444[7121]:836-837). Previous evidence indicated that the outbreak was caused by poor hospital hygiene; many of the children with HIV were also infected with hepatitis . . . [Full Text of this Article]