Public Health: HIV returns to the health agenda in developed nations

Aziga may be the first person ever to be convicted of murder by wilfully infecting sexual partners with HIV / Aids. Whilst not (yes?) a serial killer, two of the eleven women he had unprotected sex with have died - and another five have contracted the virus.

The case against Aziga, heard in Hamilton, Ontario, was complicated: it included allegations of rape predicated on the presumption that the women did not give valid consent to sex because they did not know he was HIV positive.

His defence - that he is a depressive and a drunk, and that he has post-traumatic stress (from what?) - did not work. Nor did the argument, made by his lawyer Munyonzwe Hamalengwa, that a guilty finding would increase the prevalence of HIV on the basis that, if knowingly or recklessly transmitting the disease was tantamount to murder, then an extension of the "don't ask, don't tell" idea applicable to homosexuals in the US miltary would mean that less people would get tested.

It is not the first case of HIV positive defendants being convicted of a lesser offence: in the past three years, three Canadian cases have resulted in convictions for sexual assault.

But Agiza's case had a particularly horrible aspect: he lied about his condition when specifically asked about it - and then convinced the women to have unprotected sex. In Canada there is a legal obligation to disclose such disease to sexual partners. And those treating him for the virus twice served him with notices ordering him not to have sex "involving penile penetration" unless he both informed his partner and wore a condom from "the onset of erection."

His knowing and callous behaviour has led to this groundbreaking case.

Meanwhile, over on the other side of the country, Charles Kokanai Mzite has been convicted of four counts of aggravated sexual assault for failing to inform four women that he was HIV positive. One of them has contracted the virus. He has been placed on the National Sex Offenders Register. He is a registered refugee from Zimbabwe but his status may be revoked as a result of the case, say immigration lawyers.