AIDS widows honoured for fighting it out

July 30, 2008

29 Jul 2008,

MUMBAI: Widowed by AIDS, deserted by relatives and fired from her job after she

was diagnosed as HIV positive, 40-year-old Reshma Koregaonkar (name changed)

from Mangalwadi slum in Santa Cruz has had it tougher in life than most others.

However, the mother of two, whose husband died of AIDS in 1996, hasn't been

cowed down.

Soldiering on and diligently following her doctors' advice, she hopes for a

brighter future someday.

" I look after myself now. I have to keep going, at least for my daughters'

sake,'' she says. Koregaonkar has taken up a new job and is the sole breadwinner

for her family.

Her optimism got a boost on Monday when she was selected as one among the 46

widows on Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) who was felicitated by MP Supriya Sule

at the state-run JJ Hospital in Byculla for her resolve in sticking to the

treatment. Koregaonkar has been on ART since 2004.

" The felicitation was supposed to be a motivation to those with HIV/AIDS as well

as an example to others that people can live near-normal lives if they are

regular with their treatment,'' said Dr Alaka Deshpande who heads JJ Hospital's

ART centre. Of the 2,548 women enrolled at the centre, nearly 35% are widows.

Another survivor related how her CD4 count (an indicator of a person's immunity)

had gone up from 39 in 2004 to an encouraging 748 today.

Explaining how tough the journey is for those like Koregaonkar , Dr Deshpande

said women faced several hurdles while continuing their treatment . " Sometimes

they face difficulties in commuting, others may have a tough time getting leave

from their workplaces or sometimes they suffer reactions such as rash or

diarrhoea and local doctors just tell them to stop ART,'' she said, adding that

the medical fraternity, too, needs more awareness.

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