Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Uzbekistan service has reported that a doctor found guilty of accidentally infecting more than 140 children with the HIV virus has been given her old job after serving a five-year jail term.

According to the Ozodlik report on April 30, Oliya Shodiyeva was jailed in 2008 for the mass infection, which occurred while she was acting as deputy to the head doctor in a hospital in the Ferghana Valley town of Namangan.

Ozodlik based its report on information provided by an unnamed doctor in Namangan.

“At the end of last year, she returned to work and within a short period of time and with the help of her acquaintances, she was reinstated to her old job,” the source told Ozodlik.

The broadcaster said at least 15 newborns out of the 147 infected children died after contracting the virus.

Prosecutors found at the time that doctors had failed to sterilize catheters, had reused disposable syringes and needles for taking blood samples, and also had falsified sterilization records and later destroyed evidence.

Twelve hospital workers were sentenced to prison for 5-8 years. Nine other medical employees from district hospitals in Namagan region were investigated. In 2010, another group of doctors in the nearby city of Andijan were also charged with infecting patients with HIV.

“Among those jailed for the mass infection [in Namangan] was our head doctor and his deputy, Shodiyeva, who got five years. At that time they also fired the head of health service for Namangan. Many of the doctors are still doing time,” Ozodlik’s source said. “It is unclear how [Shodiyeva] could have been reinstated after so many children were infected with HIV.”

Ozodlik said workers at the pediatric hospital in Namangan confirmed that Shodiyeva had been reinstated, but declined to comment.

While the government’s initial reaction following the Namangan case was to try and deny anything had happened, legislation was passed in 2010 making it a criminal offense to infect hospital patients with HIV through negligence.

While a 1999 law made reference to legal liability for endangering anyone else's life by deliberate infection with the HIV virus, or infection due to medical negligence, a reference to punishment "established by law" was never defined, according to a Ferghana.ru report at the time.

The Criminal Code previously provided punishment of fines or arrest from 6 months to 3 years for "deliberately endangering another person by infecting them with a venereal disease or AIDS." The 2010 law specified criminal liability of arrest for 6 months or imprisonment up to 5 years for such infection "as a result of non-fulfillment or negligence of professional duties."