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(AUSTRALIA) - Two Australian
men who openly admitted their campaigns to intentionally
infect others with HIV were not reported to police,
out of health officials’ concerns for the individuals’
medical privacy, according to a report published April
10 in The Daily Telegraph.
Melbourne resident Michael Neal was
committed March 29 to stand trial on 106 charges, including
deliberately spreading HIV, attempting to spread a lethal
disease, rape and child pornography.
The Victorian Department of Human Services
had been contacted nine times over a four year period
by doctors and concerned individuals who accused Neal
of deliberately infecting others with the disease, according
to the Telegraph report. Neal himself told the DHS at
his first meeting with health officials that he had
unprotected sex with multiple partners and only sometimes
informed them he was HIV positive.
A psychiatrist who examined Michael
Neal in 2004 informed the DHS that Neal was the “most
evil man I have seen in 20 years” who “enjoys
infecting men with HIV”--Neal allegedly referred
to his infection attempts as “breeding” the
disease.
One witness at Neal’s committal
hearing reported that Neal hosted a “conversion
party” to infect a 15-year-old boy with HIV. The
boy was reportedly drugged with methamphetamines before
undergoing sex with about 15 HIV-positive men.
Despite numerous accusations of dangerous
and criminal behavior, the DHS failed to inform police
authorities, instead following a lengthy process including
counseling, education and support. That was followed
by a letter of warning when his behavior did not change,
and officials finally issued orders that restricted
his sexual activity and required him to make daily contact
with a department official.
When the police were finally informed,
health officials refused to disclose Neal’s medical
files until a subpoena was issued that required his
doctors to give evidence in court.
In a similar case in South Australia,
health officials were warned in 2005 that Stuart McDonald
was intentionally spreading HIV, but two years passed
before he was ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation
and stop having unprotected sex and advertising for
sex on the Internet.
Victoria’s chief health officer,
Dr. Robert Hall, was fired by Health Minister Bronwyn
Pike on April 15, reported The Age, over concerns he
was thwarting police investigation of HIV cases, including
accusations against Michael Neal. Ms. Pike has received
calls for her own resignation over the case and a public
investigation into the health department.
She defended her actions in a public
statement yesterday, saying she was not responsible
for communication failures in the department and that
she had acted decisively as soon as she became aware
of police complaints against DHS officials.
AIDS organizations in Australia warned
in November that HIV infection rates were soaring in
Sydney’s homosexual community, with infection rates
rivaling that of African nations at between 10% and
18%.
Last year in New South Wales 954 people
were diagnosed with HIV, the Sydney Morning Herald reported,
and almost three-quarters of those infected caught the
disease through homosexual activity. The steady rise
in HIV/AIDS infection rates has been attributed to a
growing laxity towards protection among the homosexual
community.
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