Those who are themselves HIV-positive are best suited to counselling and helping others in a similar situation. This is the verdict from many HIV-positive patients in Maharashtra. The National Aids Control Organisation wants to engage professional counsellors at the treatment and counselling centres attached to ART centres, but patients are against this change.

The lack of medical attention for prisoners in Indian jails is a major concern when they suffer from serious diseases, whether chronic conditions like heart ailments and diabetes or infections like tuberculosis which also happens to be an opportunistic infection in AIDS.  

The school is run by the local zilla parishad at Hasegaon village and is flooded with requests by parents for transfer certificates so that they can admit their children in other schools.

People identified as being in the high risk group for HIV/AIDS are getting a little more attention in Andhra Pradesh. The Andhra Pradesh State Aids Control Society (APSACS) has launched its ‘Shubham’ campaign to determine the HIV status of people at a higher risk of contracting the disease, reports the Express News Service on July 13, 2009. 

Criticism about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been circulating for years but few people are willing to go on record with their statements. Two recent reports have created a stir.  

The many accounts of positive people being denied healthcare must be recorded to remind us that things haven't changed much over the years.

The Indian Express (May 22, 2009) reports on a patient who approached the Uttar Pradesh government's Swaroop Rani Nehru Hospital and was initially refused treatment for an infection. When he was finally admitted, a sign was placed above his bed saying ‘HIV’. The words ‘HIV’ were removed after a protest from the Allahabad Network for People Living with HIV Positive, but was replaced with the words ‘ART’ and a red ribbon. To add insult to injury, the patient's attendants were asked to buy gloves and other material from the market and also to dress the wound themselves. The superintendent of the hospital is quoted as saying that she provided five medical kits for the treatment of the patient. Presumably this is to indicate that care was given. (SAATHII)

Healthcare professionals routinely refuse care to positive people, or charge them more for treatment. Part of this is certainly just plain prejudice. But some are also afraid of HIV infection. Are healthcare staff trained and equipped to prevent occupational exposure to blood borne infections?