Paris, Thursday
A 15-year-old French boy who wrote a moving book about living with
Aids has died just two years after his younger brother succumbed to the
disease.
Stephane Gaudin died on Tuesday of Aids-induced septicaemia, after
receiving a contaminated blood transfusion eight years ago.
His brother Laurent, 11, whose filmed slow death moved millions of
television viewers to tears, died in 1991.
Both boys were infected by blood products that have contaminated 1250
haemophiliacs and killed more than 300 so far in a scandal which
contributed to the Socialist government's rout in the general elections
in March.
Stephane's death came as the re-trial of four former senior public
health officials accused of knowingly allowing Aids-tainted blood to be
given to haemophiliacs in 1985 reaches a climax with the final defence
and prosecution pleas.
The trial hearing observed a minute's silence at the request of
lawyers for the victims today.-- The teenager's dream was to fly around
the world and he had just passed his licence to fly ultra-light
aircraft. His father Patrice was building an aircraft for him in his
garage.
''I am crushed. Eighteen months ago we were a family of five. Now
three are left,'' Patrice Gaudin told the daily Le Parisien.
His third son, five-year-old Alexandre, was born after the tainted
blood products were withdrawn in late 1985 and has not been infected by
Aids.
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