'Healer' Infects with HIV: Acupuncturist and Music Teacher Maurice Goeller Allegedly Infects 16 with HIV

An unlicensed acupuncturist in Switzerland is being charged with allegedly infecting 16 people with HIV between 2001 and 2005.

According to the UPI.com, a five-judge panel at Bern-Mitelland regional court indicted Maurice Goeller, 53, who does not himself have HIV, on charges of spreading human disease and causing serious bodily harm.

After a complaint from a student in 2005 who was diagnosed with HIV, officials began investigating Goeller.

Investigators ultimately uncovered 15 others with similar stories. 

Prosecutors said he practiced acupuncture without a license and allegedly, the needles were infected with AIDS.

The regional prosecutor's office said in a statement that most of Goeller's victims were recruited from among his music school students.

The man, who was also a music teacher, had many of his students visit for treatment, and the majority of the infected individuals were from his music school.

Goeller denies all wrongdoing, or even performing acupuncture.

A second suspect was initially identified, but then dismissed, when no evidence confirming his involvement could be found.

HIV, known as the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is found in the blood and the sexual fluids of an infected person, and in the breast milk of an infected woman. HIV transmission occurs when a sufficient quantity of these fluids get into someone else's bloodstream. Common ways it is spread are unprotected sex, contact with an infected person's blood, use of infected blood products, injecting drugs or from mother to child.