Lucknow: Does anyone care about these HIV patients?

[Guest guest]

Does anyone care about these HIV patients?

Alka S Pande & Atiq Khan/Express News Service

Lucknow, May 21: The Chief Secretary's office took 12 HIV-positive

patients in vehicles to Raj Bhawan to form an `Alliance for People

living with HIV/AIDS' on Wednesday. No written consent was taken from

these patients for attending the function.

These patients were labourers and were `mobilised for a public

function' through NGOs. They had arrived here from Eastern UP and

were stayed in the Institute for Health and Family Welfare at

Indiranagar for the night.

One of the patients did not want to be identified because two of his

sisters were about to get married. Another wanted to protect his job.

According to UNAIDS (India is a signatory to it), HIV positive

patients have a " right to confidentiality and their HIV-positive

status should be properly protected.'' NACO guidelines specifically

say " protect the physical and informational privacy of HIV patients " .

" There was no need for written consent, because they were not

introduced as HIV patients. They mingled with the audience like any

other person,'' said Aradhana Johri, Project Director UP State AIDS

Control Society. This function was meant to be a hush-hush affair and

even the press was not invited for it, she added.

Reacting to her statement, Jashodhara Das convenor Health-Watch (UP,

Bihar) told The Indian Express, " If any organisation is trying to get

any kind of publicity by using identified HIV positive people, it is

in complete violation of human rights and goes against international

agreement to protect their right to privacy, confidentiality, and the

right to be free from discrimination. "

Despite Johri's best efforts, this vulnerable group of 12 patients

were exposed to people representing international agencies, a score

of senior State officials, including Chief Secretary V K Mittal,

officials of the Raj Bhawan and Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri himself.

Besides, representatives of international agencies namely, Catholic

Relief Services, CARE India, Action Aid and Naaz Foundation and a few

other NGOs were there. According to persons, who attended the

function, people of this vulnerable group were made to sit in the

last rows of a hall (Jankaksh of Raj Bhawan) where the function was

held.

Two of them even rose to speak, said the sources who attended the

function. The patients reportedly said: " The doctors have told us

that we are HIV-positive. The medicines prescribed cost us Rs 2,000

per month, while we earn only Rs 1,000. Doctors told us that we would

die without the medicines.''

Johri, however, maintained that their identity was not revealed. She

admitted that in the second half of the function some of the patients

came with their stories. She, however, clarified that at that time

all the dignitaries had left the place and it was only the UPSACS,

NGOs and the patients.

After the function, the HIV patients were sent back to where they

came from. Johari called over the media to have a chat with two

celebrity HIV-positive patients, Anandi Yuvraj from Tamil Nadu and

Brijesh Dubey from Rajasthan, for launching the alliance named ASHA.

These patients had volunteered to narrate their stories, Johri said.

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=31684