Health department allays HIV infection fears

The health department of South Africa's Western Cape Province has called for calm after recent reports that 14 children had contracted HIV in hospitals. Controversy erupted last week after an article in the latest edition of the South African Medical Journal pointed out that 12 of the children were treated at eight Western Cape hospitals. Dr Fareed Abdullah, the head of the province's HIV/AIDS programme, said each case was being taken "extremely seriously" and the risk of infection was still small. Abdullah was quoted by a local newspaper, the Cape Argus, as saying: "We're talking about a possible 14 cases in the past six years."