AIDS victim suffers condemnation too

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A family ends up being boycotted by the entire village because the daughter died of AIDS, courtesy transfusion of contaminated blood. Is it fair? It is time the government and the NGOs enlightened the people suitably and promptly.

CJ: shikha garg

Tue, Oct 07, 2008 11:08:39 IST

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Health News :

RECENTLY, AN important item of news went unnoticed by leading newspapers and news channels as well. It concerned a girl, Pratyusha from Warangal in Andhra Pradesh who died of AIDS. She contracted AIDS because of transfusion of contaminated blood at the children’s hospital. Why did not the doctor check the blood before the transfusion? It is a different issue altogether, although more important. My major concern here is with the aftermath of the girl’s death.

The village boycotted the family as soon as the villagers came to know the reason behind her death. It has made life worse than hell for the family. Family members now wish they too had died with her. The family tried to convince the villagers that it was innocent. It went through a blood test but all their appeals fell on deaf ears. According to the villagers, the family had committed a major crime for which it would be convicted and punished.

Here the question is who is to be blamed for this state of affairs? The villagers alone cannot be held guilty for the consequences. After all, there has been no initiative from the government or the NGOs. They have not convinced the masses that AIDS does not spread by mere touch or by merely eating together or the like. This story is particularly important as legal battles surrounding the rights of HIV positive patients are bound to be few and far between. It is simply because, often, the high-risk groups are also the ones which are conspicuous on the periphery of the social system and HIV only leads them to entrenched isolation.

We need to tell the people that the AIDS-affected are also human beings. When earth, water and wind do not discriminate against them why should we discriminate against them? Or who are we to discriminate against them? Besides, in what way the family in question is culpable? Life is a gift to one from the almighty and we are no one to take way the gift from the recipient.

A comprehensive awareness programme on AIDS-related issues should be launched so the AIDS-affected can be helped more. There is a taboo against discussing about AIDS - even with parents and the vice-versa is true too. Lack of information and abundance of misinformation gleaned from websites or road-side bookstalls harms our youngsters. This leads to HIV positive patients being discriminated against in terms of access to healthcare and social exploitation. They fall victim to the situation which denies them and their families even basic human rights.

A society cannot afford to tread the same stale and regressive path as before. With changing times, some changes are necessary elsewhere too. It is not that we should blindly start imitating the West but at least we can make sure that such incidents are not repeated.

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Posted comments (2)

	kudos to the effort!!!!atleat somone is there to understand the issue and has taken a step towards bringingit under the light..Obviously, the God gifted life of a person is in no way, dependent on choice ofothers. There can't be any discrimination thus that too on the basis of a diseasewhich is under none's control. Its not only to feel the shame on part of few, but forall if such cases keep pn happening, even when we celebrate increasing awareness.Its not the only responsibility of Government or a group of people,rather it needs to be openly discussed as the current issues being published in newspaper.Good job...........
	Charu Bansal \| 17 October 2008 Reply to Comment \| New Comment \| Report Abuse

	Nicely written...n its absolutely true that the villagers alone cannot be held guilty for the same. Each year there are more and more new HIV infections, which shows that people either aren't learning the message about the dangers of HIV, or are unable or unwilling to act on it. Many people are dangerously ignorant about the virus, with surveys around the world showing alarmingly low levels of awareness and understanding about HIV amongst many groups. Education can help to overcome such ignorance, and thereby prevent HIV infections from occurring.Education needs to be an ongoing process, because each generation of young people need to be informed about how they can protect themselves from HIV as they grow up. Older generations, who have already hopefully received some AIDS education, may need the message reinforced, so that they continue to take precautions against HIV infection, and are able to inform younger people of the dangers. Efforts to combat the AIDS pandemic in India and elsewhere are essentially public activities, led by national governments. Unfortunately, in many areas where the pandemic is most serious, the governments are barely functional.Efforts to combat the AIDS pandemic in India and elsewhere are essentially public activities, led by national governments. In some regions, there is no real authority in existence to help implement the monitoring, prevention and treatment of AIDS. Private�public collaboration in tackling AIDS remains at an early stage of development, however. Some major companies still decline to participate, and the national committees that coordinate Global Fund programmes often remain unresponsive...keep the good work up...
	Himanshu Kansal \| 08 October 2008 Reply to Comment \| New Comment \| Report Abuse