A 27-year-old woman was given a seven-year prison sentence by the Chief Magistrate Court in Lira for purposefully giving HIV to her stepson, who was five years old.
Collin Odyek was detained last year after she knowingly and voluntarily used a syringe to collect her blood while at their Ober Kampala, Lira City West Division house, injecting the youngster through his veins.
She said before the court that she gave the youngster the injection as retaliation for how his father, Aaron Bua, had treated her.
Odyek came before Chief Magistrate Samson Lumum Abiti, who gave her a seven-year jail term. Abiti contended that even though she was the first offender and showed signs of regret, her actions were brutal and required a deterrent punishment.
“I note the convict was very remorseful, she pleaded guilty and did not waste this court’s time, but she also said that she injected the boy with her HIV blood to retaliate for the mistreatment of his father. However, this one cannot help the situation because one wrong cannot cure the other one,” the prosecutor said.
The defendant was previously charged with intentionally transmitting HIV in violation of section 43 (1) of the HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act when they both appeared before the same court.
When tainted blood is injected or given through a cut, Hillary Okello, the HIV focal point person at Lira City, says that it only takes 24 hours for the HIV virus to enter the body.
A nurse named Rosemary Namubiru was found guilty in 2014 by Buganda Road Court after it was claimed that she had treated a newborn while using a syringe tainted with HIV-positive blood.
According to reports, Namubiru pricked a kid she was attending to at Victoria Medical Center with the same cannula she used to get her HIV-positive blood.