Vietnamese man compensated paltry $2,200 for 10-year HIV misdiagnosis

By VnExpress   October 21, 2016 | 01:05 am PT
Vietnamese man compensated paltry $2,200 for 10-year HIV misdiagnosis
Hoang Khac Suu says the HIV misdiagnosis has caused him and his wife a lot of difficulties finding jobs. Photo by VnExpress/Hai Binh
He had sued for $35,000, but accepted the lower amount as he was too tired to keep up the fight.

Health authorities in the central province of Nghe An have paid a man VND50 million ($2,200) for misdiagnosing him with HIV for over a decade.

The amount is just one fifteenth of what Hoang Khac Suu, 43, was claiming from the province’s Preventive Health Department.

Suu withdrew the lawsuit against the department after receiving the money on Friday.

In April, he sued the department for compensation worth nearly $35,000 after being wrongfully diagnosed with HIV while serving a jail term in 2003.

He was released in 2013, and given his healthy appearance, some health officials suggested a fresh test.

A test in September 2014 at the Nghe An HIV/AIDS Prevention Center proved negative, as did another at a local hospital.

The health department then took his name off the list of people with HIV in the province.

The department offered to pay him VND2.2 million ($100) to cover the two tests and transportation to the medical centers, but Suu rejected it saying the mental agony caused by the mistake had been severe.

“The HIV positive test result caused me a lot of discrimination.”

Suu said he has become “very tired” trying to clear his name. He and his wife both have freelance jobs with unstable incomes.

Related news:

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