Stigmatized Indian woman with HIV aborts own baby
By Bappa Majumdar
KOLKATA (Reuters) – A pregnant HIV-positive woman was
forced to abort her own fetus after staff in a hospital in
eastern India refused to help her, officials said on Monday.
In a separate incident in the region, an infected man was
stoned by people who feared he might spread the virus. He later
died of his injuries.
Investigations in both cases are under way but authorities
and activists said such incidents underlined how much stigma
and even paranoia was attached to the disease in India.
An estimated 5.7 million Indians live with HIV, more people
than in any other country, according to the United Nations.
The 23-year-old woman, who recently tested HIV positive,
was shunned last month by doctors and nurses in a state-run
Kolkata hospital who told her they would not help her undergo
an abortion.
“The hospital had no sympathy for me as I had to pull out
the fetus with my hands and clean myself as health workers
guided me from a distance,” Roshni Mulani, a mother of a
two-year-old child, told Reuters.
“They read about my HIV status from medical reports … and
threw medicines from a distance,” said Mulani, who is
recuperating at the house of anti-AIDS activist Ramen Pandey.
“Many health workers in India still think AIDS can spread
by just touching,” Pandey said.
In the neighboring state of Orissa, a 35-year-old man with
full-blown AIDS died after he was pelted with stones inside a
hospital compound.
“He was strolling in the vicinity when some people threw
stones at him last week,” Alexander Pahi, a senior police
official said over the phone from the coastal town of Puri.
Loknath Mishra tested positive two years ago and was
ostracized by his neighbors who feared that he may spread the
virus in Puri, a holy town for Hindus.
The victim’s brother told police that some people had
threatened Mishra after they found out he had AIDS, Pahi said.
Many Indians feel that eating or touching a person with HIV
could result in the virus spreading to them.
In July 2003, an Indian woman was reported to have been
stoned to death by panicky relatives and neighbors in the
southern state of Andhra Pradesh.