David Lee Mangum, a 36-year-old grocery store worker from Missouri, was arraigned this week for infecting his partner with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), reports NBC News.  Mangum learned he was HIV positive in 2003, but he went on to have sex with over 300 partners in Missouri and Texas.  Officials are concerned about the potential threat to public health since all of these people could have been exposed.  They may have unknowingly contracted the virus and, without this knowledge, they could go on to spread it to their partners.  For those in the region of Stoddard County, officials are encouraging anyone who thinks they may have been exposed to cease sexual activity until they have been tested.

According to ABC News, initial charges were brought against Mangum for knowingly infecting his 28-year-old live-in partner.  The partner, who remains anonymous in the filed charges, goes by D.B.  Mangum knew he was HIV positive, but failed to disclose that information to his partner.  In Missouri, that amounts to a felony charge of “reckless exposure to HIV.”  If the victim that has been exposed goes on to contract the virus, the New York Daily News reports that the accused can be given a life sentence.

Mangum met his former partner through an ad in the men-seeking-men section on Craigslist in October 2012.  The next month, the two moved in together.  In June 2013, the relationship ended when D.B. discovered that Mangum had been cheating on him throughout the relationship.  D.B. then tested positive for HIV in July 2013 and went to the police to file a complaint.  At that time, D.B. also told police that a former female roommate of Mangum informed D.B. that Mangum had been HIV positive since 2003.  Mangum was arrested August 27.

CNN reports that Mangum confirmed that he had tested positive for HIV while living in Texas years before.  He also admitted that, despite the diagnosis, he had sex with hundred without disclosing his HIV status and there were at least 15 to 20 instances of unprotected sex.  Police have been working to track down other partners of Mangum.  Thus far, they have been able to at least 50 that lived in Stoddard County.  While Mangum has been disclosing information to the police, he is not able to help with tracking down partners as he generally only knows first names.  His primary limiting context is that all of his partners have been white males.