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TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2686
INFO RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS PRIORITY 0540
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS PRIORITY 0316
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 0489
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 0860
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHSF/AMEMBASSY SOFIA PRIORITY 0157
RUEHTRO/AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI 3080

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TRIPOLI 000834 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/MAG 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  9/23/2017 
TAGS: PHUM PREL LY BG
SUBJECT: NURSES GONE, BUT LIBYA'S HIV/AIDS WOES CONTINUE 
 
TRIPOLI 00000834  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Chris Stevens, DCM, Embassy Tripoli, Dept of 
State.. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
¶1.  (C)  SUMMARY.  A lavishly-funded treatment facility 
constructed exclusively for the 426 infected Benghazi children 
remains off limits to hundreds of other Libyans in Benghazi 
currently living with HIV/AIDS, according to a team of American 
HIV/AIDS experts who visited Libya in mid-September.  Though 
Benghazi doctors are capable of providing a high level of 
medical care, years of GOL propaganda and an over reliance on 
treatment abroad have created a lack of public confidence in 
Libya's ability to treat HIV/AIDS cases at home.  Most of the 
426 infected Benghazi children have traveled abroad for European 
government-subsidized medical care, many in the months before 
the medics' departure as a way to "prevent [the families] from 
raising their voices."  Benghazi professionals criticized 
Europe's handling of medical assistance, claiming they have 
offered nothing concrete to Libya's healthcare system and are 
not willing to work cooperatively with their Libyan 
counterparts.  Most Benghazi doctors still stand by the belief 
that the six medics are guilty of intentionally infecting 426 
children with HIV/AIDS in 1999.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (U)  A team from the Baylor College of Medicine Pediatric 
AIDS Program -- Dr. Mark Kline, Dr. Mike Mizwa, Dr. Gordon 
Schultze, and NP Nancy Calles -- visited Tripoli and Benghazi on 
September 16-18 as part of Baylor's ongoing implementation of an 
MOU concluded with the GOL in 2006.  Kline, the U.S. 
representative on the Benghazi International Fund, and Calles 
briefed DCM and Poloff on their visit on September 18. 
 
GOOD TREATMENT -- IF YOU CAN GET IT 
 
¶3.  (C)  According to Kline, a lavishly funded facility designed 
to provide state-of-the-art care to the 426 Benghazi children, 
the Benghazi Children's Center (BCC), operates in parallel to 
the city's health system.  The facility houses diagnostic 
equipment on par with that available in better European 
hospitals.  Medical staff, drawn largely from the larger 
Benghazi Medical Center or al-Fatah Children's Hospital, receive 
large GOL stipends to do weekly rounds at the BCC.  The BCC's 
staff include specialists in dentistry and optometry -- 
disciplines unrelated to the HIV/AIDS cases -- because "other 
medical facilities have made it clear they won't take the 
Benghazi children," forcing them to seek all medical care in 
this high-quality yet segregated facility. 
 
¶4.  (C)  Though Kline is optimistic that the 1999 Benghazi 
outbreak will eventually spark some positive spillovers into the 
larger medical community, there is little evidence to suggest 
such spillover yet.  Access to the BCC is restricted to the 426 
Benghazi children.  An additional 420 individuals, including 20 
children, known to be infected with HIV in Benghazi must seek 
treatment at the sub-standard Benghazi Medical Center.  Asked 
about the HIV/AIDS situation in Tripoli, Benghazi medical 
professionals told Kline and Calles that HIV/AIDS in Tripoli 
stems primarily from intravenous drug use and that no one in the 
GOL has suggested either opening the BCC to patients nationwide 
or training doctors from Tripoli as part of U.S.-EU-Libya's 
ongoing medical cooperation.  In Benghazi, they said, the virus 
has spread primarily through heterosexual contact, with the 
large number of sub-Saharan African immigrants playing a 
significant role. 
 
RELIANCE ON EUROPEAN HOSPITALS BREEDS LACK OF CONFIDENCE IN 
BENGHAZI DOCTORS 
 
¶5.  (C)  According to Kline, a lack of confidence in Libyan 
doctors to effectively manage HIV/AIDS cases is a major 
impediment.  Victims' families, spurred on by GOL promises of 
"quality care" at European hospitals, have no confidence in 
Benghazi doctors' ability to treat the infected children.  The 
Libyan doctors, frustrated with seven years of the families' 
doubts, have internalized a lack of self-confidence.  Kline 
criticized European governments for emphasizing treatment in 
European hospitals as part of the "compensation deal," noting 
that France and Italy especially have compelling commercial 
reasons (i.e., the prospect of lucrative contracts in the arms 
and petroleum sectors) to accept the Benghazi children for 
expensive, months-long stays with accompanying elaborate tests 
and drug therapies. 
 
¶6.  (C)  He emphasized that all of the children could receive 
quality care in Benghazi if the families were willing to try -- 
but they are not.  According to Baylor's Benghazi contacts, as 
 
TRIPOLI 00000834  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
many as 400 of the children, with GOL encouragement and 
financing, have sought medical care outside of Libya.  They 
noted that from April to July 2007 -- in the run-up to the 
medics' departure -- several hundred families were sent off to 
Europe for months at a time to "prevent them from raising their 
voices" as the GOL worked to find a solution to the criminal 
case.  On September 17, the Baylor team was scheduled to examine 
50 patients at the BCC, but only 15 showed up.  Hospital staff 
told the team the children's families had mostly left Libya 
since the July compensation payments (families received about 
USD $1 million for each infected child), some moving permanently 
to Egypt and Saudi Arabia. 
 
¶7.  (C)  According to the Baylor team, Benghazi hospital staff 
were unusually critical of European efforts in Benghazi. 
Addressing three European representatives -- a British 
psychiatrist, an Italian physician, and a Dutch database 
management expert, the director of the BCC said, "You have done 
nothing for us."  The director went on to praise Baylor for its 
concrete proposals and eagerness to work directly with the 
Benghazi medical community.  The leader of the European team, UK 
psychiatrist Rafik Hosni, told Kline that the Europeans do not 
have an MOU analogous to Baylor's and have little clear 
direction for their medical engagement in Benghazi. 
 
BENGHAZI DOCTORS STAND BY MEDICS' GUILT 
 
¶8.  (C)  Kline noted that, almost without exception, Benghazi 
doctors refer to the 426 cases as the "injected children" rather 
than the "infected children."  Though the Baylor team steered 
well clear of politics during their September 16-18 visit, every 
Benghazi doctor they spoke with maintains the Bulgarian medics 
were guilty of intentionally infecting the 426 children with the 
HIV virus in 1999. 
 
STEVENS 
MILAM