Have We Really Progressed? HIV Is Still A Taboo, Many Patients Are Dumped By Kin, Wallow On Roads

When Md Ismail was being taken to a hospital, little did he realise he would be dumped outside a ward in a state-run facility by his own wife because he is HIV positive.

After volunteers shifted him to a centre run for such patients, he lay there shocked for days after realising his family, employers and relatives had all turned their backs on him.

While Ismail is currently undergoing treatment, not-solucky Sarita died on the road unattended near the KPHB Metro station few weeks back.

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The 32-year old HIV patient was staying on the road with her four children after losing her husband to AIDS five months earlier.

From earning Rs 11,000 per month between themselves and being able to provide shelter, food and schooling for their children, the family fell apart completely and started living on the streets. The children were later moved to an orphanage by an NGO.

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In yet another case a brother wasn¡¯t allowed to keep his HIV infected sister with him in a rented flat. He was forced to leave his sister at the state run Gandhi Hospital for over a month last year.

Experts say more awareness on the disease is the only solution to the stigma. Discrimination looms large despite claims of the state health department about the stigma being on the decline.

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Activists say it may have worsened going by number of of HIV/ AIDS patients being abandoned by family members, dumped at hospitals, shown the door at the workplace and turned out from residential societies in the city.