Ohio state officials are urging anyone who engaged in sexual activity with a local sex worker to get tested for HIV after it was revealed that she allegedly had contact with over 200 clients despite knowing she was HIV-positive.
Authorities
are warning those involved in “risky business” with her to seek medical
attention immediately, according to a report by the New York Post.
The sex
worker, identified as 30-year-old Linda Leccesse, was in contact with at least
211 clients from multiple states in the two years since January 1, 2022. It was
around this time that she took an HIV test and learned she was positive for the
potentially deadly virus.
Leccesse
reportedly solicited most of her clients on Market Street in Marietta, a small
city in southeast Ohio near the West Virginia border. However, authorities
believe the potentially infected individuals could be spread across the East
Coast.
“This
case could stem anywhere from Florida up the East Coast, but there are local
individuals that we will be reaching out to,” Washington County Sheriff’s
Office Chief Deputy Mark Warden said in a press conference last week, according
to the Parkersburg News and Sentinel, a West Virginia newspaper.
Authorities
have started reaching out to known clients of Leccesse to inform them of the
situation. They’re also encouraging anyone else who may have had contact with
her to contact the concerned authorities.
“They’re
not in trouble, this is public health awareness. This is not a scam,” Warden
said.
“Marietta/Belpre
Health Department is a judgment-free zone with full confidentiality. Anybody
who may have been with Leccesse is asked to be ‘brutally honest’ with
officials,” said Barbara Bradley, health department administrator, adding that
relatives of Leccesse’s clients and anybody who had sexual contact with them
are also vulnerable to the “risky business.”
Leccesse
was arrested on May 13 for soliciting sex on Market Street.
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