Women linked to arrested man get HIV test

MOSCOW, Idaho – Several women believed to have had sex with a man who they say didn’t tell them he had the HIV virus, a felony in Idaho, are undergoing testing this week at a Moscow clinic.

So far, about a dozen people linked to the case have been tested for HIV, said Carol Moehrle, director of the North Central District Health Department. She declined to give the results, citing medical privacy laws.

Kanay A. Mubita, 31, has been charged in 2nd District Court with seven counts of transferring body fluids that may contain HIV to seven separate women.

Mubita remains in the Latah County Jail on $20,000 bond.

Police say Mubita, who holds a Zambian passport, became romantically linked with as many as 20 women while frequenting the local bar scene.

The women being tested in Moscow will have to be tested again.

“It takes a body a bit of time to show signs of the virus,” Moehrle said.

Having sex with an infected person doesn’t mean the virus is automatically passed on, health officials said.

In testing, nurses swab potential victims’ cheeks for oral fluid. The swab is then tested for HIV antibodies, said Donna Anderson, the North Central Idaho Health District’s epidemiologist. The test is more than 99 percent accurate, she said.

“I think that if people feel they are at risk, nothing calms the nerves like having the results,” Anderson said.

Under Idaho law, all positive tests must be reported to state authorities within three days. Those cases are then investigated by the local health district to identify anyone who might have been exposed to the virus.

According to Latah County court records, Mubita tested positive in December 2001.

Mubita’s case is the first felony HIV prosecution in Latah County but the third such case in Idaho in the last decade and a half.

In Kootenai County, Mark Arnold Crawford, 37, was scheduled for sentencing in September after pleading guilty to having sex with a woman and failing to tell her he had HIV.