The Hindu : HIV is not end of the road, say patients

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 02, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

HIV is not end of the road, say patients

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE Dec. 1. At the Government's World AIDS Day function on Sunday, two persons spouted no official lingo. Their very presence was proof of overwhelming courage and hope.

Elangovan from the Karnataka Network of Positive People (KNPP) and a young woman spoke about life with the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV).

In fact, the young woman said: "HIV\AIDS is not a `maha mari' (deadly disease). Look at me, I have been HIV positive for the past six years but have had no ill effects."

She preferred anonymity so that her husband would not be harassed at work. She was told she had the virus during an ante natal check-up. "The doctor told me to abort the baby," she recalled.

Ironically, this Bangalorean was not admitted in any City hospital. "There is still not much information on this disease," she said. In the past six years, her husband remained HIV negative.

"Yet the minute people hear about a HIV positive woman, they suspect her morals and link the disease with sex alone," she said.

She hoped people would realise that those with HIV\AIDS were human beings too. "Being HIV positive is not the end of your life," she said.

Mr. Elangovan said people with HIV had to be "meaningfully involved" so that the stigma reduced. "Earlier, governments spread fear-based, morality messages. Now it is not so." Still most people (with HIV\AIDS) did not know where to get treatment.

Educated people, especially doctors, were the most discriminatory. "They refuse to treat us," he said. In Bangalore, there were NGOs as an alternative help line. This was not so for those outside the City. "People with HIV\AIDS are not a burden. They are productive and part of the solution for the epidemic," he added. Novel approach: Later, the Centre's Sangeetha and Nataka Division (Bangalore) had a "Yakshagana" performance on HIV\AIDS prevention with characters such as STD (Sexually Transmitted Diseases), HIV, illiteracy and so on. Officials said they planned 500 such performances in every part of the State through December-January.

There was a laser show on AIDS awareness from Laser Vision India.

AIDS awareness jatha

The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP), in association with various voluntary organisations, organised an AIDS awareness jatha on Sunday.

The Commissioner of the BMP, M.R.Sreenivas Murthy, flagged off the jatha in front of the BMP head office in the morning.

The motorcade included songs (folk and light) and dance performance besides street plays on themes related to AIDS.

The jatha passed through Subbaiah Circle, Kengal Hanumanthaiya Road, Hosur Road, and culminated at the Koramangala Health Centre. A public meeting to create awareness on the dreaded disease was organised in association with the voluntary organisations in Koramangala, according to a press release.

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