A circus acrobat born in Zimbabwe knowingly spread HIV by having
unprotected sex with several women, according to Australian police.
Authorities issued a national plea for the women, who number at
least 12, to contact police and medical authorities for testing.
The acrobat, Australian citizen Godfrey Zaburoni (31), was due to
face a magistrate tomorrow.
Health officials said seven of the women were from the northeastern
state of Queensland while others were from neighbouring New South Wales and
Victoria.
Queensland chief health officer Jeannette Young said:
“Unfortunately, he couldn’t give us enough detail to contact those women
directly.
Any woman in the country who has had unprotected sex with this man
should go and get tested.”
Police said Zaburoni, who has appeared on Australia’s Got Talent,
was diagnosed with HIV in 1997 and has travelled the country widely as a
performer with various troupes.
Police in Queensland, where Zaburoni will make his court
appearance, said the state had only recorded one conviction for knowingly
transmitting a serious disease.
