After 24 daya of life and punished for no fault of her own, a baby girl who was abandoned on the steps of an orphanage and fostered by the Freedom Foundation,
breathed her last in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Her only crime - she was born HIV positive.
The child, who was admitted to one of the city's premier Christian hospitals in a highly septic condition, was discharged from the ICU when it was found that she was
HIV positive. Her caretakers were asked by the doctors to take her back as the risk of infection to the other babies was high. The child was discharged on Monday night and died the next morning.
Instances of HIV positive children being spurned by the city hospitals are on a rise and the directorate of health and family welfare says that its hands are tied as
it has no control over the private hospitals.
Bangalore Times did a random survey of 10 private hospitals to enquire if they would admit and treat HIV positive children. Of them, six refused outright and four said that if it came to a point where the other patients protested, they too would not. All pleaded anonymity as they did not want a deluge of HIV positive children on
thair doorstep if their names were mentioned.
Dr P.N. Halagi, Additional Director (AIDS) of the State AIDS cell said that at present, it was mandatory for only government hospitals to treat HIV and AIDS patients including children. "Private hospitals have better resources to treat the patients, but they shun them fearing other patients will make an issue out of it."
Ashok Rau of The Freedorn Foundation spends up to Rs 40 lakh a year on the treatment of HIV positive and AIDS patients in his foundation. Last year alone the
foundation fostered about 15 children with HIV. "We have to speak out for children. Many hospitals loudly proclaim that they will treat these children but there is a wide chasm between policy framing and implementation. They give us excuses like they are short of beds, lack facilities or that the child does not need hospitalisation," he said.
He added that the only alternative - admitting these children in government hospitals - is not viable as the treatment meted out to them there is also discriminatory and the facilities almost non-existent.
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