Posted on 04/26/2002 6:24:13 PM PDT by Ralph the Hun
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Hundreds of people will be tested for the AIDS virus after the arrest of an infected college basketball player on charges of having unprotected sex, the governor said Friday.
Nikko Briteramos, an 18-year-old freshman at Si Tanka-Huron University, was arrested Tuesday and charged with five counts of knowingly exposing a woman to HIV. Briteramos, who is from Chicago, remained in jail Friday on $10,000 bail.
Defense attorney Mary Keller said Briteramos is stunned by the charges. "He strikes me as a very sincere young man who is completely baffled by what's going on," she said.
More than 50 people were tested on Thursday, and none had any immediate sign of the virus, Gov. Bill Janklow said. Additional testing will be required at three weeks, three months and six months, he said.
One of the people tested gave the names of 70 others who were in contact with Briteramos, and the chain will undoubtedly run into the hundreds before everyone is tested, Janklow said.
For "anyone who has multiple sex partners, it's reasonable to assume that some of those sex partners have had multiple sex partners, and that's how the chain starts," the governor said.
State Health Department officials said three reports of HIV infection, including Briteramos' case, have been confirmed in Huron, a middle-class town of 12,000 about 120 miles from Sioux Falls. Authorities allege Briteramos had sex with the two other people.
The AIDS rate in South Dakota is among the lowest in the nation at 1.1 cases for every 100,000 residents.
Briteramos' infection was detected when he tried to donate blood last month, authorities said.
A total of 50 sexual partners have been identified from the three HIV-positive cases.
Briteramos, a 6-foot-7 center, could get up to 75 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
"This is no different than pointing a gun at somebody and pulling the trigger," the governor said.
Probably because some of them were not women.
Anybody have a photo of this jerk?
As this article says, having sex with someone when you know you have AIDS is equivalent to murder, or at least to playing Russian roulette. The guy is stunned to be charged, however, because it has become politically correct to ignore these medical facts.
Student charged in HIV exposures Nikko Briteramos, 18, a student at Huron University, has been arrested and charged with five counts of intentional exposure to HIV infection, said Mike Moore, Beadle County State's Attorney.
Moore said all counts relate to one victim. On each count the defendant could face 15 years in prison or a $15,000 fine or both.
| Briteramos is being held in the Beadle County jail in lieu of a $10,000 cash bond. The five counts mean there were five different exposures on five different occasions to the same victim. But two HIV infections have been found in investigation of Briteramos' relationships. A date for a preliminary hearing for Briteramos could be determined either today or Monday. Briteramos will have a court-appointed attorney representing him. Briteramos is from Chicago, and played for the HU men's basketball team. According to Doneen Hollingsworth, South Dakota secretary of health, the HIV infections in Huron were discovered as part of the Department of Health's routine state surveillance effort. "Identification of HIV triggers an immediate investigation, including detailed interviews with the infected individual to identify other contacts who may have been exposed," Hollingsworth said. She said Department of Health officials followed up with every identified contact to counsel them about their risk of infection and to get them in for testing. "Through these contact interviews, two additional HIV infections have been identified," Hollingsworth said. Those two individuals, who engaged in sexual relations with Briteramos, were female and over 18 years of age. While the encounters took place prior to Briteramos learning that he was HIV positive, the exact dates of those encounters are unknown and he allegedly was not aware of his HIV status at that time. The names of the two other people who were found HIV positive were not released because the information is confidential under state law. The two individuals who have tested HIV positive were discovered after Briteramos learned he was infected and told Department of Health officials who his sexual partners were. Briteramos told authorities that his sexual contact with the two individuals found to be HIV positive happened while he was living in Huron. Moore said that at this time Briteramos is only being charged with those five counts of intentional exposure to HIV infection. "It is still under investigation," he said. "We are trying to follow up on any leads we may have at this point, so I don't know the answer to that question" of whether there will be more charges. The victim Briteramos is being charged with intentionally exposing to HIV infection has been tested and found to not be HIV positive. On Tuesday, as part of the ongoing investigation, Department of Health staff became aware that one of the confirmed HIV cases may have violated a South Dakota law of intentional exposure to HIV infection, which is a felony. The sexual activity was with another person who was not on the list of individuals who had previously been identified as sexual partners. In order to have a successful prosecution of intentional exposure to HIV infection under state law, Moore said, the defendant had to know he had the infection and intentionally expose another to the infection, and the other person must not have known the defendant had the infection. When it was found that Briteramos had engaged in sexual activity after he learned that he was HIV positive and had not told his partner, that information was immediately turned over to the attorney general's office, Hollingsworth said. She said the primary goal of any disease investigation is to stop the spread of disease and the information gathered in an investigation is protected by confidentiality statutes. "However, in this instance, there was a perceived threat of continued exposure by a particular individual, and the law gives the department the authority to act to stop that exposure," Hollingsworth said. Quick action According to Larry Long, chief deputy attorney general for South Dakota, when the Department of Health contacted the attorney general's office on Tuesday about the situation, Department of Criminal Investigation officers in the Huron area immediately began investigating the case, and later that same day, the suspect was arrested and placed in the Beadle County jail. They then contacted the Beadle County state's attorney office to bring criminal charges against Briteramos. "We were aware at that time of what we believed to be one count of the violation of the statute, and the subsequent investigation determined that five counts could be charged and I believe that Mr. Moore made the decision to make the change from one count to five counts," Long said. Bonnie Jameson, director of disease prevention for the South Dakota Department of Health, said HIV is a reportable disease in South Dakota. "At this point in time, we don't know if this individual is the source of the case," she said. "We are continuing in our investigation. What routinely occurs when an individual is reported with HIV is that our staff investigates the individual case and contacts sexual partners and needle-sharing partners to follow up with those individuals. We continue on with the investigation as we identify new positive HIV infections." According to Jameson, Briteramos first learned that he was HIV positive after the blood he had given during a blood drive at Si Tanka-Huron University in March turned up the HIV infection. Moore said so far in the Department of Health's initial investigation, there is no evidence that Briteramos had prior knowledge that he was HIV positive when he donated blood in March. Jameson said all donated blood is tested for any possible infections before being released to medical institutions for public use. She also said they have no reason to believe that Briteramos knew that he was HIV positive before giving the blood. From the initial investigation into the three individuals who tested positive for HIV to determine partners they have been involved with, approximately 50 contacts have been identified, Jameson said. She said none of the 50 contacts so far were under 18 years of age. Those 50 contacts have been interviewed and tested for HIV by the Department of Health. Jameson said that individuals who are tested after exposure to HIV are tested at six weeks, three months and six months after initial exposure. With the initial testing, it takes up to two weeks before lab results are available. Lab results that have come back so far are coming up negative for HIV. "Our investigation will be ongoing for a number of months," she said. "We could have people exposed to the HIV virus and have not converted yet. That is why you want to follow up with testing. We could see others in this investigation. We will just have to wait and see." During the course of the initial investigation, partners have been named from out-of-state, and that information is being shared with those state health departments, Jameson said. Although HIV can be transferred through intravenous drug use with the sharing of needles or though women having sex with intravenous drug users, Jameson said no evidence has been confirmed at this point to indicate that drugs were involved. "We are still conducting our investigation," she said. Jameson said when individuals are found to be HIV positive, they are told not to have sex, or if they do, they must inform their partners that they are HIV positive. "We cannot tell from the investigation so far that those other individuals that are positive are in fact the source case of the HIV infection," she said. Long said the Briteramos case is the first one he has been involved with while working in the office of the attorney general. The law making intentional exposure to HIV infection a crime was passed by the South Dakota Legislature in the 2000 legislative session and went into effect July 1, 2000. No AIDS confirmation While Briteramos and two others have been found to be HIV positive, they do not have AIDS. Jameson said an HIV infection is when a person who has been exposed to the HIV virus becomes infected with the virus. She said the incubation period for AIDS is relatively long and could be up to 10 years or more. "What is important to remember is when a person is HIV infected, they may be without symptoms and feel fine, but they are infectious to others," she said. "AIDS is when you have a diagnosis with other multiple, opportunistic infections and other illnesses. That is a category where a physician would make the determination." HIV can be transmitted through sexual exposure, blood transmission that can occur though an unintentional needle-stick injury, though a blood transfusion that was not tested or through mother-to-child transmission. HIV is not casually transmitted such as through the air or shaking someone's hand. "The risk that we have for transmission can range from 1 to 100, 1 to 1,000 depending the activity that the individual is engaging in," Jameson said. |
Yet it appears that he has, just in that time, had sex with some SEVENTY (70) South Dakotans, or about one person in 10,000 in the entire State.
This kid is a one-person epidemic.
Uh...is there something you failed to tell us about South Dakota women ?
Not anymore.
This is new. Not a bad idea depending on the partners, but new.
Which makes it probably 10% as dangerous a driving a car.
LOL Guess you've been out of school for a while.
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