Five blood donors, who had been positive for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) when donating blood last year, were sentenced to jail terms of between eight to ten months on Wednesday.

According to Channel NewsAsia report, the judge insisted on "a sentence of some severity" despite their pathetic medical conditions.

The Prisons Service was quoted as saying that HIV-positive prisoners are segregated from other prisoners.

The five people were charged under the Infectious Diseases Act with making false declarations in the Donor Health Assessment Questionnaire in November.

The blood they had donated, which tested HIV-positive later, was not used in any transfusion.

Stringent measures to screen blood donors and test donated blood have been in place, according to the Health Ministry, which announced last week that a total of 2,584 Singaporeans were found to be infected with HIV as of October this year.

Source: Xinhua