An Italian woman will be compensated 145,000 euros after contracting HIV in a laboratory at the University of Geneva.
- An Italian student who contracted HIV during an Erasmus exchange at the University of Geneva in 2011 will be compensated to the tune of 145,000 euros by the Swiss establishment, in exchange for the dropping of legal proceedings.
- The young woman allegedly manipulated samples of the AIDS virus during research carried out as part of her thesis.
- Although the university refused to admit its liability, the dispute ultimately resulted in an amicable settlement and this substantial compensation.
An Italian student who contracted HIV during an Erasmus exchange at the University of Geneva in 2011 will be compensated to the tune of 145,000 euros by the Swiss establishment, in exchange for the dropping of legal proceedings.
The student allegedly handled HIV samples in the laboratory
According to information relayed by several media quoting AFP, the young woman allegedly manipulated samples of the AIDS virus during research carried out as part of her thesis. The investigation has not yet been able to determine how she contracted the virus.
On her return to Italy, the student resumed a normal life at the Italian University of Padua (North), to which she depended, until she discovered her HIV status in 2019 after blood tests. Based on genetic sequencing, Italian laboratories concluded that the virus carried by the young woman was “identical to those designed in the laboratory” in Geneva, writes the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera.
The university refused to admit responsibility
In support of these conclusions, the victim then began a legal battle. Although the university refused to admit its liability, the dispute ultimately resulted in an amicable settlement and this substantial compensation.
It remains that the life of the young woman “has been destroyed”she declared to the same newspaper in 2019. “And there is one thing that continues to haunt me: No one prepared me and the other students who entered this laboratory for these experiments. We received no training, no safety instructions. How is Is it possible for such young people to be placed in such conditions?”
