The number of people in Taiwan infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, had exceeded 3,500 by the end of last month, the Center for Disease Control (CDC), under the Department of Health, said yesterday.
CDC officials said that HIV carriers have been found in nearly every walk of life, with military servicemen, civil servants and academics accounting for about 10 percent of all HIV carriers and housewives accounting for 40 percent of female HIV carriers.
"Eight doctors and five nurses are also on the list of Taiwan's HIV carriers," CDC Deputy Director Chiang Ying-lung said, adding that four of the doctors and two of the nurses have already died from AIDS.
Chiang added that as none of the HIV-positive medical personnel perform, or used to perform, surgery so they would be unlikely to transmit the virus to their patients.
He said that the 13 infected medical professionals form a tiny proportion of the country's HIV carriers.
Chiang said the CDC was informed a few months ago that a male homosexual doctor had tested positive for HIV.
Under existing laws, he said, the carrier's personal data should have been kept secret.
"It is regrettable that the information was leaked," Chiang said, adding that the doctor's right to work must be protected in accordance with the law.
In foreign countries, he noted, the labor rights of HIV-infected doctors and other professionals in the medical sector are carefully protected and the decision as to whether such doctors should be allowed contact with the public in a professional capacity should depend on each individual situation.
"If they are surgeons, foreign hospitals usually reassign them to departments that maintain no direct contact with patients," he said.
According to CDC tallies, civil servants make up 2.4 percent of Taiwan's 3,500-plus HIV carriers, military servicemen account for 5.3 percent and professionals in various fields, including teachers and medical personnel, account for 4.6 percent.
Homemakers make up 40 percent of the more than 200 female HIV carriers, CDC officials said.
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