Re: On Positive Children in Kerala

[Guest guest]

Dear friends who are involved in trying to help bring Education to Bency and

Benson:

I had been following up the story and my heart goes out to them.. and am

saddened to observe how future leaders of our society are being treated. They

are not allowed to go to school and play with kids of the same age just because

of being born HIV positive to their parents. I think parents in Manipur are more

responsible. I have not heard of any parents creating hue and cry about positive

children being present in the schools of Manipur. Nor any such incident had been

reported in other parts of the country that i know of.

I am sure parents and the Government could learn from Manipur.

I agree with Dr. , in wondering how many Home schools will the govt.

sponsor?? I also wonder what the name of the school would be.

Regards,

O. Lall

El Shaddai Resource Centre

E-mail: jol@...

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

The story of two positive children can help all of us who are involved in

HIV/AIDS interventions to think through some of the points that the issue

has brought up:

1. There are some of us who think we have done enough in terms of awareness

programs since we have been doing it countrywide since the past ten years or

more. I wonder what kind of awareness are we all talking about? A level of

having heard about AIDS? Or a level of knowing enough to form a responsible

personal opinion about it? A level of personalizing the knowledge and then

decide what we as responsible citizens ought to do?

2. There are some others who think care and support for PLWAs is the over-

riding need of the hour and all stress should now be put on this.

Let us remember that care cannot be confined only within the four walls of

the hospital or of the patient's home or of a care/counselling

facility. Care needs to be wholistic - in all dimensions of health as WHO

defines it.

Such care cannot happen unless we have a supportive environment in the

home, in the community and in the society at large. Again a large component

of care can only come when people stop doing things out of ignorance such

things as the story of two children referred to above. Hence true care can

only come when we are truly aware! A high degree of awareness need to be in

place in our health care insitutions as well as in all other sectors and

also in in our community settings both rural and urban. How we achieve this

should one of one major concern and should be an essential component of our

care interventions, of course not forgetting the urgent duty of care towards

PLWAs.

3. Activists of whatever shade we may be - we ought to be sensitive about

how we highlight and score our points. Having the photos of two innocent

children over and over again in the print media is, to say the least, very

painful and hurting! Can we be that callous and heartless as we

present our cases however right they might be!!!

My own observation is that despite all our efforts, we still have a very

long way to go both in terms of awareness and care and the government and

all concerned need to apply their minds much more seriously, and this also,

RIGHT NOW. Let the story of " the two children of Kerala " open our

eyes to the fact that in India we have many more miles to go in terms of -

addressing the issues of " Stigma and Discrimination " - the bedbrock

of " Care and Support " and the end point of " Awareness Generation " !

Dr. Langkham

Emmanuel Hospital Association

E-mail: <langkham@...>

[Guest guest]

Dr Langkham has highlighted a very important point about survival

after becoming HIV +ve.

I had read a theory about why Indian +ve people lived a much less

period of time than their counterparts in Australia.

I heard about a supposed gene that causes fast progression.

Then I came to India and I found out the real reasons:-

Those of us who know anything about immunity know that stress will

consume our bodies helper cells quite quickly so with stigma and

discrimination pressing in on positive people their immune system

has no hope. So much of this damage can be overcome with more

appropriate community responses. The virus does damage but not as

fast as stigma and discrimination.

The other reason is fear of discovering a +ve test result which

makes people fearful of even being tested.

So many of the +ve people I met had so few CD4 cells when they

found out about their status that they had no hope of utilising

the many immune stimulants that can offset the need for expensive

medicine for some years and enable +ve people to lead healthy

lives. Now this statement has to be qualified of course. +ve

people need to have good wholesome food and very safe water to

drink and plenty of rest, minimum amounts of stimulants like

alcohol and nicotine and some consideration to their emotions and

spiritual lives as well.

Many +ve folk have survived for some years before their immune

system eventually needs the help of ART's but more importantly

once an otherwise unsuspecting person knows their status their

behaviour becomes a lot more safe and protective of present and

future partners.

The latter issue is one of the biggest deficits in the community

settings in India. Even private blood banks don't advise donors

who test +ve to blood borne virus disease which is not unfortunate

or based on overt disinterest by the donor, as is commonly stated

by the staff, it is criminal negligence and anyone who is found to

have passed on a virus illness to a partner after donating blood

and not being told of their status would have a good case for a

prosecution for contributory negligence by the staff of the blood

collecting unit whether private or public. Imagine the change of

practice if a successful prosecution resulted in a large

compensatory award for damages!

I guess the positive children stories from Kerala have the

potential to change people's way of thinking but the enormous

inbuilt fear of HIV and its supposed contagion potential will

require a lot of work or it will result in a lot more people

having first hand experience of the illnesses that result from the

present ignorance.

I will look forward to a visit to the Emmanuel Hospital

Association when I save up enough money to come back again to

India.

Geoffrey

E-mail: gheaviside@...>