Victoria Medical Centre speaks out on nurse

By Innocent Anguyo

VICTORIA Medical Centre has confirmed that the nurse who is currently held by police on suspicion of injecting a baby with HIV infected blood, is their employee.

The parents of the victim had taken her to the health facility for treatment when Rosemary Namubiru, 65, allegedly carried out the act.

According Victoria Medical Centre lawyer Nicholas Opio, Namubiru started working at the health facility in 2011.

“She is a qualified nurse who was enrolled in 2011. We ask the public to respect the non derogable right of the accused person. We also ask the public to respect the privacy of the patient and the family in this investigation,” said Opio.

According to Opio, when police arrested the suspect on Monday, Victoria Medical Centre had already tested her for HIV and established that she had the virus.

“She (the suspect) said she was attempting to administer an injection to the victim (baby) when she (baby) started kicking-around, in the process striking the syringe, making it to prick her (nurse),” said Opio.

However, Opio says when the woman realized that the syringe had pricked her; she did not proceed with administering the injection and went to dress her wound before returning with a fresh syringe that she subsequently used to inject the baby.

Namubiru who is HIV positive, was arrested following complaints by the baby’s parents who claim to have seen her inject their child using the unsterilised syringe that she had also used on herself.  

In her defence, Namubiru said she did not intend to inject the baby with the blood but had pricked herself by accident.

Opio says the facility is fully cooperating with the police to ensure that a thorough investigation into the case is undertaken.