A German anesthetist was sentenced on Friday to a suspended two years in prison for grievous bodily harm, after he passed on hepatitis C to dozens of his patients.

The 61-year-old doctor is believed to have infected 51 of some 1,700 patients he put to sleep for surgery between February 2017 and April 2018.

The prosecution had asked for three years in prison and is considering appealing the verdict.

What do we know about the case?

The Augsburg regional court in the southern German state of Bavaria also convicted the doctor of embezzlement.

He is believed to have stolen opiates from the Donau-Ries hospital where he worked, later injecting himself to tackle a painful intestinal disease. The symptoms are believed to have been triggered by hepatitis C, although the doctor is said not to have been aware of his infection at the time.

The court assumed he unknowingly contracted the disease from a patient, then also unknowingly spread it.

The judge presiding over the case, however, spoke of "blatant violations of hygiene rules" and described the case as a "medical scandal of nationwide proportions."

The now-retired anesthetist made a comprehensive confession, describing the ordeal in court as a "nightmare." He said he had battled depression for years.

All the patients the convicted doctor operated on in the specified period of time have been tested for the disease.

Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by an often undetected virus. Though in many cases it heals on its own, the virus can cause chronic liver inflammation that could in some cases eventually lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. However, with new medications, the disease is now almost entirely curable.

rmt/nm (AFP, dpa)

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