Taipei - Investigators were checking whether HIV-positive gay men infected others at a sex-and-drugs party in Taiwan's capital last weekend that led to the detention of 92 people, the island's health chief said.
Partygoers who had unsafe sex at the orgy even though they knew they were infected with HIV could face criminal charges, Health Minister Chen Chien-jen said in an ETTV cable news report broadcast on Wednesday.
Chen said that nearly one-third of the 92 men found at the orgy in the Taipei apartment on Saturday tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes Aids.
"We respect the human rights of people with Aids, but I hope that at the same time we're respecting their rights, each person will take care of himself and be concerned about others," Chen said.
He did not say what charges the men could face if they knowingly transmitted the disease to another person.
Police raided the party on reports that the illegal drug Ecstasy was being used there. Arrests were made after Ecstasy pills were found in the apartment.
Television footage of the scene showed a sparsely furnished flat with the floor littered with used and unused condoms.
The apartment's rooms were crowded with young men wearing only underpants. Police made them sit in rows on the floor as they searched the rooms, and the men covered their faces with their hands or stuck their heads between their knees.
Officials said that 28 of the 92 people at the party last Saturday tested positive for HIV. Of the 28 infected partygoers, only 14 were on the government's official list of HIV-infected people, the China Times and United Daily News, two of Taiwan's biggest newspapers, reported on Wednesday on their front pages.
The health minister said that the number of infected partygoers could rise.
"There are 64 people who might have already been infected, but it's still too early for the tests to be definitive," Chen said. "So we've already set a time for them to be tested again" in three months.
Chen did not say how the courts would punish those who knowingly infected others with HIV. Legal officials could not be reached on Wednesday, the start of the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday. - Sapa-AP