Despite overwhelming evidence attesting to their innocence, last month six medical workers were sentenced to death in a Libyan trial. The crime with which the five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor are charged is indeed horrifying. After an outbreak of HIV at the Al-Fateh hospital, the Libyan government accused the defendants of committing an act of bioterrorism by deliberately injecting 426 hospitalized children with HIV-tainted blood. The HIV strain is particularly virulent and has already contributed to the deaths of more than 50 of the infected children. The families of both the victims and the accused are enraged, and the controversy is escalating: the case has already seen one retrial and further appeals are likely. But what about science? What does the scientific evidence have to say? Click here to read the full story.
Students read an article on the Libyan trial and the science behind it, as well as answered the following discussion questions:
This article described a similarity between HIV evolution and fruit fly evolution. What was that similarity? How might the evolution of HIV and the evolution of fruit flies be different?
The HIV viral strains infecting the Libyan children are all slightly different from one another. Explain how they are different and how they got to be that way.
The phylogeny of the children's HIV viruses helped show that the medics did not cause the HIV cluster at the hospital. What aspect of the phylogeny helped show that? Describe how it helped exculpate the accused.
Homework: Read the full story at
Nature.comRead and take notes on Sections 25.1 and 25.2 for class on Monday.
B Block: please also watch the second video on the post below and answer the questions that follow it.
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