A 58-year-old man and healer from Switzerland was indicted for infecting his music students with HIV.

Maurice Goeller was a music teacher turned healer. He was running an unlicensed acupuncture clinic and infecting his patients with HIV. He would pierce their skin with needles infected with the HIV disease.

The case came to the attention of police in Switzerland when a patient at Berne Hospital was diagnosed with HIV; the patient told physicians that he could trace his disease back to when he received acupuncture from Goeller.

The police then found another 15 students of Goeller also diagnosed with HIV after receiving treatment from the so-called healer.

As to why he infected his students with the deadly disease, Goeller is keeping quiet. He has pleaded not guilty and flat out denies ever performing acupuncture.

HIV or Human Immunodeficiency Virus causes severe damage to the body's immune system. Because the immune system is left in a weakened state the HIV patient is more susceptible to infections and cancers. A common bacteria may not harm someone with a healthy immune system but in patients with HIV it can be life threatening.

HIV is most commonly transmitted from one person to another as a result of un-protected sex. A pregnant woman can spread the disease to her unborn child, and a nursing mother may pass it on through breast milk.

As the immune system weakens, an HIV patient will develop AIDS. The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome can be fatal in patients. There is no cure for HIV/AIDS but early treatment of HIV can help keep the development of AIDS at bay.