19 on H.I.V. Drugs After Needle Prick
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 1, 2005
PHILADELPHIA, April 30 (AP) - Nineteen elementary schoolchildren who were pricked with a diabetes-testing needle by another student are taking strong drugs to fight H.I.V. after one of the children tested positive for the virus, officials said.
The authorities have ruled out the possibility that the child who tested positive for the virus, which causes AIDS, could have been infected by the needle prick.
Although the authorities said the odds of the needle transmitting the virus to the other children were extremely low, the drugs would reduce the amount of the virus in their blood or slow the progress of the disease. The drugs do not cure H.I.V. infection or prevent transmission of the virus.
"It may be in there, but it never gets a chance to set up cells in your body," Roger Pomerantz, head of the infectious-disease division at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, said of the drugs' effects on the virus.
The 8-year-old girl who stuck her Taylor Elementary schoolmates with her mother's needle on Wednesday was suspended and will probably be moved to another school, officials said. They were unsure why she pricked the students.
