Posted on 05/07/2005 8:40:43 AM PDT by LadyShallott
PHILADELPHIA - A third-grader stuck 19 schoolmates with her mother’s diabetes blood-testing needle this week, and one pricked student tested positive for HIV on a preliminary test, officials said.
Health officials said the virus could not have been contracted from the needle stick, and they noted that preliminary tests can yield false positives. The risk to students who were stuck after the possibly infected child depends on factors including the depth of the stick, health officials said.
The 8-year-old stuck her Taylor Elementary schoolmates Wednesday at the school’s breakfast, at lunch and in the classroom, using a needle that was about one-third of an inch long, on the end of a device that looks like a pen, school officials said. They were unsure why the girl did it. She was suspended and will probably be moved to another school, said Paul Vallas, the school district’s chief executive. Most of the students involved were taken to a hospital for testing and treatment, school officials said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the risk of HIV infection after a needle stick is low, with an average of one in 300 cases leading to infection.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
It's even lower if the person who used the needle doesn't have HIV. There seems to be no indication whatsoever that either the mother or child here has that disease, is there?
Ahh, I found something:
http://www.lenconnect.com/articles/2005/05/06/news/news01.txt
The positive test for HIV proved to be a false one.
But the article stated that one of the kids that was pricked is infected with HIV. Any student that was stuck with the needle after the infected student is at risk.
Scary! I thought it was a second occurance for a minute.
Ahh, yes, OK, I understand now. Thanks. Fortunately, as my subsequent search revealed, it was a false positive.
Wow, so they're all taking antiviral drugs now:
http://news.dcealumni.com/776/0205-hiv-prevention-drugs-given-to-19-students-pricked-by-a-third-grader/
The 8-year-old stuck her Taylor Elementary schoolmates Wednesday at the school’s breakfast, at lunch and in the classroom,
Post here from last week:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1393348/posts
According to Philly Inquirer:
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/education/11548001.htm
Retest shows no HIV.
Such is life in the Philadelphia public schools. At least the kid wasn't packing a gun.
I just hope that nobody hand cuffed the kid!!
When needles are outlawed...only seamstresses will have needles!
Yeah, that'll solve the problem.
She kept the kit to monitor her sugar levels after a bout with Gestational diabetes last year. She told her daughter it measured high sugar levels in her blood.
Suspended Student's Mother: "She told me she took it to school to test her friends because they eat sugar and candy all the time. She wanted to test how high their blood sugar levels were. She didn't do it maliciously."
"What happened when you brought it to school?" Suspended 3rd Grader: "I poked myself first and poked some people and after that poked myself." The now suspended 8-year-old tells Denise James she demonstrated on herself before sticking others to show it didn't hurt, and that other students also used the tiny needle to prick classmates. She says her mother made it clear what she did was wrong.
"My mom said if someone is sick and poke another person with the same needle, we're all gone get sick." Her mother was worried one of the children pricked with the same needle might get sick, but was devastated by news that one of them is HIV positive.
"I started crying. I started screaming. I knew something bad was going to happen. I didn't think it was going to be something like that." Her daughter is among the 19 students now taking HIV preventive medicines. And now she understands that what she did was dangerous.
"I didn't want nobody to get hurt. I didn't want that to happen." The 3rd grader has spent the last two days indoors crying with her mother, wishing she had never played with that testing needle.
"What do you want your friends to know?" "To know that I'm sorry."
Mom: "I hope everything can be fine. I hope nobody gets sick."
"I hope this nightmare can be over. It's like a nightmare." Mom says she has received at least one veiled threat from another parent.
(Copyright 2005 by Action News. All Rights Reserved.)
Thank goodness it proved to be false. What a horrible story.
after reading the interview above...the story a little more fleshed out than initially thought. *sigh*.....The girl didn't seem to have mal intent but more of a curious streak of her mother's accucheck meter.
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