Activists working in the field to spread awareness about Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and help remove the stigma and resultant discrimination said that there was a need to proactively sensitise people about the issue.
“Discrimination is a worry and a lot of it stems from lack or incorrect knowledge about the disease,” said Jagruti Patel, joint secretary of Ahmedabad Network of Positive People. She said that while the state government has been doing a lot for HIV positive people, much more is needed to be done particularly for the vulnerable sections including widows and orphaned children that are HIV positive. She said that discrimination often ‘killed’ a patient the way the virus never did.
Jyoti Patel — another member of the network — said that the Gujarat government’s scheme of providing transportation allowance to help HIV positive patients living in far flung areas to access medicines from government hospital was a step in the right direction.
“However, despite the good intentions many people fail to get the benefits because they don’t have the required documents. You need several documents to access the benefit,” she said.
The activists also said that many pregnant women, who are HIV positive, fail to realise that their unborn child can be prevented from being an HIV positive child if medical help is given at the right time.
Shreya — a HIV positive woman from Bapunagar — said that she was pregnant when she realised her status. “My husband tested negative and I was worried about my child. Thanks to medical help my child tested negative for HIV,” she said.
Another member of the network said patients faced discrimination even from doctors, who are supposed to be well-informed about the disease. “Many doctors refer the patients to someone else or to government hospitals because they are afraid of treating an HIV patient. Had they been better informed about how the disease spreads they would not have done it,” said the member.
He added that even companies discriminated against employees who revealed their HIV status.
