Medics behind bars can't save lives

Now, if you had a team of qualified international medics trying to save children in your country, one might say it doesn't make sense to blame them for the sickness of the children in your hospital.

This story always gets me so angry I can barely see straight.

The BBC reports that six Bulgarian medics previously convicted by a Libyan court of infecting children in a hospital with HIV are on trial--again--now for supposedly making false claims of torture that they say were used to extort confessions.

The medics have been in prison in Libya since 1999, accused of infecting over 400 children with the virus that causes AIDS. Libyan courts, and the government, have refused to acknowledge that HIV was present in their town prior to the medics' arrival in 1998. They were convicted a second time on appeal late last year. A new trial for the infection allegations is due to open later this month after the accused successfully appealed against their death sentences. More information on the case can be found here.

Experts from the French medical team that first discovered HIV have testified on behalf of the medics that the infections were likely caused by unhygienic conditions in the hospital that predate the arrival of the medics.

These people have been in prison for almost ten years. How many lives could they have saved if they had been free all this time?