Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Meerut: Despite all efforts, AIDS continues to be a word that generates more anxiety than awareness in India. The following case depicts the true picture of the stigma and discrimination faced by HIV positive patients.
Well, it so happened that a 30-year-old woman got admitted to Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College in Meerut for a caesarean delivery. After realising that she is HIV positive , the woman was labelled a “bio-hazard” by the doctors at the hospital, and a big sign that read “Bio Hazard +ve” was pasted on her bed along with a red AIDS ribbon. To make matters more worse, she was also made to clean her own medical waste days after her delivery.
Check the medical definition of ‘Biohazard’ which will tell you that it is a biological agent or condition (as an infectious organism or insecure laboratory procedures) that constitutes a hazard to humans or the environment. Is this the name HIV patients will be dubbed with?
Not only the staff, but the doctors also admonished her for “bringing another diseased child into the world”.
This treatment is not just inhuman, but it also goes against laws that directs hospitals not to disclose status of HIV/AIDS patients.
Later on, the shocking incident was reported to the Care Support Centre (CSC), which helps people living with HIV, who immediately dispatched its district team to the hospital and tore off the sign.
