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Student attacks 19 classmates with needle
MSNBC ^ | April 29, 2005 | AP

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: hiv; needlestick

1 posted on 05/07/2005 8:40:43 AM PDT by LadyShallott
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To: LadyShallott
I know this is an article that is weeks old, but I just came across this. Does anyone have any updates on this? I did a search and couldn't find anything. Sorry if it's a dupe. I am not fully awake yet. :)
2 posted on 05/07/2005 8:42:44 AM PDT by LadyShallott ("An armed society is a polite society."~Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: LadyShallott
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.

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?

3 posted on 05/07/2005 8:43:13 AM PDT by mcg1969
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To: LadyShallott

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.


4 posted on 05/07/2005 8:44:21 AM PDT by mcg1969
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To: mcg1969

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.


5 posted on 05/07/2005 8:45:27 AM PDT by undeniable logic
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To: LadyShallott

Scary! I thought it was a second occurance for a minute.


6 posted on 05/07/2005 8:45:52 AM PDT by 1FASTGLOCK45 (FreeRepublic: More fun than watching Dem'Rats drown like Turkeys in the rain! ! !)
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To: LadyShallott

More.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/042905_nw_needleinterview.html


7 posted on 05/07/2005 8:46:33 AM PDT by mcg1969
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To: undeniable logic

Ahh, yes, OK, I understand now. Thanks. Fortunately, as my subsequent search revealed, it was a false positive.


8 posted on 05/07/2005 8:47:21 AM PDT by mcg1969
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To: LadyShallott

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/


9 posted on 05/07/2005 8:49:31 AM PDT by mcg1969
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To: LadyShallott
This was going on all day and no teacher noticed it? Why did they think all the kids were crying?

The 8-year-old stuck her Taylor Elementary schoolmates Wednesday at the school’s breakfast, at lunch and in the classroom,

10 posted on 05/07/2005 8:55:38 AM PDT by DManA
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To: LadyShallott

Post here from last week:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1393348/posts


11 posted on 05/07/2005 9:06:20 AM PDT by Teflonic
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To: LadyShallott

According to Philly Inquirer:
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/education/11548001.htm

Retest shows no HIV.


12 posted on 05/07/2005 9:19:26 AM PDT by sportutegrl (Huh?)
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To: LadyShallott

Such is life in the Philadelphia public schools. At least the kid wasn't packing a gun.


13 posted on 05/07/2005 9:29:57 AM PDT by clearlight
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To: LadyShallott

I just hope that nobody hand cuffed the kid!!


14 posted on 05/07/2005 9:37:10 AM PDT by got_moab? (Like Snoop says, "When you dis' DeLay you dis' yourself")
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To: LadyShallott

When needles are outlawed...only seamstresses will have needles!


15 posted on 05/07/2005 9:40:22 AM PDT by stuartcr (Everything happens as God wants it to.....otherwise, things would be different.)
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To: LadyShallott
She was suspended and will probably be moved to another school

Yeah, that'll solve the problem.

16 posted on 05/07/2005 9:43:25 AM PDT by paltz (New York is a blue city talking for an overwhelmingy Red State)
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To: mcg1969
"That I'm sorry." She is upset about what's happened. She says her 8-year-old daughter took her AccuCheck diabetes testing needle from her bedroom drawer and brought it to school.

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.)

17 posted on 05/07/2005 9:49:55 AM PDT by paltz (New York is a blue city talking for an overwhelmingy Red State)
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To: DManA
This was going on all day and no teacher noticed it?

The teacher was on coffee break that day. ;-(
18 posted on 05/07/2005 10:04:06 AM PDT by ARCADIA (Abuse of power comes as no surprise)
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To: mcg1969

Thank goodness it proved to be false. What a horrible story.


19 posted on 05/07/2005 10:07:34 AM PDT by duck duck goose
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To: ARCADIA

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.


20 posted on 05/07/2005 2:57:31 PM PDT by paltz (New York is a blue city talking for an overwhelmingy Red State)
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