The Australian - HealthHealth Travel Motoring Chief medic 'not told' of HIV case
Rick Wallace
April 04, 2007

VICTORIAN Health Minister Bronwyn Pike yesterday claimed a communication breakdown meant
Victoria's chief medical officer was kept in the dark aboutan accused sex predator's alleged
attempts to deliberately spread HIV.
Under pressure over revelations that her department failed to prevent Michael John Neal from
allegedly trying to infect at least 16 men with HIV despite warnings dating back to 2001, Ms
Pike promised an international expert would review Victoria's protocols for handling such
cases.
Mr Neal, 48, was committed to stand trial last week on 106 charges, including intentionally
spreading HIV, attempting to spread a very serious disease, rape and the possession and
production of child pornography.

Ms Pike, who said she first learned of the scandal surrounding Mr Neal in April last year,
stood by chief medical officer Robert Hall despite the Department of Health and Community
Service's bungled handling of the case.

"I have discussed these matters with Robert Hall and he and I agree there could have been
better handling of them," Ms Pike said yesterday. "On the basis of these discussions, he will
continue to remain in his role."

Ms Pike's office said an advisory panel convened to deal with cases of people accused of
deliberately spreading HIV had failed to advise the chief health officer of the Neal scandal,
contrary to earlier reports.

"Robert Hall never received the advice from the panel; this was the breakdown in
communications," Ms Pike's spokesman said.

He said the panel's warnings, which would normally be conveyed via email or in the minutes of
its meetings, were lost in transmission.

Ms Pike said that, although there had already been an internal review and changes to protocols
to boost oversight of the panel, she had commissioned further advice from overseas.

Mr Neal's committal hearing heard that, although health officials, who were told of his
behaviour in 2001, tried to coax him into practising safe sex, their efforts failed. The father
of three repeatedly ignored letters of warning and orders that banned him from having
unprotected sex or visiting sex-on-site venues, the court heard.

Despite the department receiving at least nine warnings about Mr Neal's behaviour between 2001
and 2005, Ms Pike's office said there was only one attempt to inform Dr Hall and it was
unsuccessful.

The chief health officer has the power to order the detention of people suspected of
deliberately spreading HIV but such cases are usually dealt with first by counselling the
person.

Ms Pike's spokesman said the minister was not told of the Neal scandal until the second of two
police raids on the Department of Human Services occurred on April 13 last year, following the
department's referral to police of child pornography allegations against Mr Neal.

State Opposition health spokeswoman Helen Shardey said she doubted Ms Pike's claims.

Former federal health minister Michael Wooldridge, chairman of a federal ministerial advisory
committee on AIDS, sexual health and hepatitis, has labelled the failure to stop Mr Neal's
alleged actions inexcusable.

Death wrote...
They can review the protocols until their asses bleed, but it doesn't change
the fact that the all-but-official protocol is to deliberately ignore HIV
predators like Michael John Neal. While the Health Ministry is charged with
protecting the public health and given a AU$20 trillion budget to fund that
mandate, actually performing that function would deplete the budget and not
leave enough left over for the annual office xmas party.

I think a good solution for all countries would be to merge the functions
and budgets of whatever agencies that deal with HIV prevention and
treatment, and structure the new budget so that the new department or
ministry gets a strictly FIXED budget to be used for both HIV prevention
and treatment. The Victoria Ministry of Health could decide to pay to
prevent Mr. Neal from transmitting the HIV virus, or it can use the same
budget to pay for the thousands of Australians he infects this year. The
health departments would NOT be rewarded for their failures like they are
now; if they fail to prevent a new HIV case, they WILL NOT get additional
funding to pay for his medical treatment. He can fuck off and die in a
gutter for all I care, but this is the ONLY way to get governments to
fight the disease.

"brainfart" <fart@brain.org> wrote in message

Lol, you ass-ume grubments want this disease stopped and that is an error
on your part.
De-population is number one on the list for the new world order.
Under-standing that hiv targets no one, it has hit the intended target.
The un-wanted, un-needed and the un-necessary.
Ask your-self............ what groups are infected?

niggers, faggots and drug ab-users.
In what country you ask? All of them.

It's just food for thought.

" Death" <Death@yourdoor.net> wrote in message
news:_bSQh.19943$ER1.13272@bignews5.bellsouth.net. ..


Deathy Baby, you are over trolling yourself. <It is like over acting, only
worse>

RamRod Sword of Baal wrote...
But I thought gays liked drama queens. And on the subject of over-acting
drama queens, I just saw a review for some San Francisco show with a male
drag queen who performs some of Joan Crawford's famous movie scenes. I
might actually go see that, I like Joan Crawford in a negative sense -
that she represents some dysfunctional ideal for generations of shallow
American women. She was all about appearance, but looking at her from
today's perspective she looks like a freak. She was fortunate she lived
before plastic surgery, or she would likely have mutilated her face even
worse than Michael Jackson. I can't believe anyone ever considered her
look to be glamorous, and I saw her in an episode of Bonanza or something
recently and it was hilarious to watch; she looked so far-removed from
a typical 19th-century woman it was pathetic.

"brainfart" <fart@brain.org> wrote in message
news:rlUQh.1247$zC.211@newssvr22.news.prodigy.net. ..

I would not dream of calling Death a Drama Qween..............