Kazakh health minister fired over baby AIDS deaths

ASTANA, Sep 20 (Reuters) Kazakhstan's health minister and a regional governor were fired today following the deaths of at least four babies and the infection of at least 55 children with the HIV virus, an official said.

The children, and one mother, were infected in the past few months in a hospital in the south of the Central Asian state, apparently after receiving transfusions of blood containing the virus.

''Due to serious shortcomings linked to this situation, the akim (governor) of the (Southern Kazakhstan) region Bolat Zhylkyshiyev and Health Minister Yerbolat Dosayev have been relieved of their positions,'' Nurlan Abdirov, deputy secretary of the presidential Security Council, told reporters.

On Monday, the Health Ministry said the cause of the infections had been negligence in a blood transfusion centre in the southern city of Shymkent.

The number of infected children, aged between two months and 10 years old, has been gradually rising as officials test children for HIV in the region.

Police are investigating the deaths and infections but no charges have yet been brought.

HIV/AIDS infection levels have increased dramatically across Central Asia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, mainly among drug addicts and in prisons.

REUTERS PDM RAI1331