PUNE: It was 2009, and Priya* found her world collapsing. Her husband had just succumbed to AIDS and the 29-year-old was still grieving when she was dealt a fresh blow by her in-laws, who picked her to blame and threw her out of the house. They also denied Priya and her four-year-old son any claim on property. Without support and unable to get a job – she was only educated till class 7 – Priya found herself facing homelessness within months.
Seven years after India passed laws to control HIV/AIDS and protect rights of patients, experts said stories similar to Priya’s continue to emerge, suggesting stigma around the disease is still worryingly prevalent.
“Priya was in fact HIV-negative. But that didn’t stop the abuse,” said Dr Rupa Agarwal, secretary of the mental health charity Mukta Foundation,who knew Priya.
“As news of her husband’s death spread, neighbours began calling her names. Their kids refused to play with her son,” Dr Agarwal said.
All this was done with one insidious agenda in mind, Dr Agarwal said. “That was to deny Priya any share in property. She didn’t know her legal rights so she was vulnerable to exploitation.”
Advocate Akshay Deshmukh said HIV-positive women and widows are particularly at risk of discrimination. “In 2018, I filed a case when a Mumbai resident wanted to terminate her pregnancy after finding out her husband was HIV-positive. He had hid this fact from her. During a routine test, she found out she had acquired the infection,” Deshmukh said, adding that the woman needed a court order to terminate pregnancy as she was past the 24-week mark.
“The court then ordered a test to determine if the child had HIV or not. Fortunately, the baby tested negative and she decided to go ahead with the pregnancy,” he said.
In another case, Deshmukh said a young widow had to file a petition after a civic body denied her a job on compassionate grounds following her husband’s death from HIV infection. “She tested negative and we won that case. But the discrimination was evident, a problem that’s also rampant in the private sector,” he said.
There are more examples. Surekha*, from Daund, was diagnosed with HIV in 2013. “I was in my 20s. My family turned their backs on me and began spreading rumours. A single medical report had changed my life,” she said.
Surekha then reached out to Samvad which directed her to an antiretroviral therapy (ART) centre.
“ART helped but stigma stayed. However, after a while, I came across PositiveSathi.com, for people with HIV. Today, nine years after my diagnosis, I can proudly say I’ve found hope again,” she said.
ART has helped thousands of people with HIV lead normal lives, experts said. “If a patient gets ART regularly, they will have undetectable viral load and chances of transmission to an uninfected partner will be negligible, even without protection,” said Dr Raman Gangakhedkar, former director of the National AIDS Research Institute.
“ART has also proven to be effective in preventing transmission from mother to child during pregnancy. Key to eliminating HIV in India is diagnosing all those who’re infected, putting them on ART and ensuring they take medicines to maintain low viral loads,” Dr Gangakhedkar said.
Dr Ishwar Gilada, president emeritus of AIDS Society of India said that in discordant couples [with one without infection] chances of transmission are at 50% if the infected person is left untreated for five years. “It’s 70% if that person is left untreated for 10 years. With ART, within a couple of months, the virus becomes undetectable and the person doesn’t become a transmission risk to the partner,” Dr Gilada said, adding that science has indeed helped curb AIDS globally.
As for Priya*, who never had HIV, life turned around.
“She now lives in Khadki, and has a job. Her son graduated with an accounting degree,” said Dr Agarwal. (*Names changed for privacy)
This post was originally published on here
