Spain tries doctor accused of giving 276 hepatitis

MADRID - A Spanish anaesthetist has gone on trial accused of infecting 276 people with hepatitis C by injecting himself with drugs and using the same needles on patients, court officials said.

Prosecutors have asked for a 2214-year jail sentence for the doctor, Juan Maeso, if found guilty, local media said.

The charges include two counts of negligent homicide for the death of two of the patients, a court official said.

The case focuses on Maeso's work in several hospitals in the eastern city of Valencia between 1988 and 1997.

Prosecutors say the doctor used to inject himself with small amounts of anaesthetic and, knowing he had hepatitis C, inject surgery patients with the used needles, another court official said.

Maeso denied the charges in a televised trial. He said if he had the liver disease it was because a patient had infected him.

Asked if he had ever injected a patient with a needle he had pricked himself with, he told the court in Valencia: "No sir, not only do I not remember it, but rather I can assure you I didn't."

He also said he did not believe he had hepatitis as he felt well.

The trial, which follows seven years of investigation, is expected to last up to a year.

- REUTERS