Petrelis Files

Reuters: HIV+ Woman Forced to Abort Fetus; AIDS Patient Stoned to Death

This depressing Reuters story was sent to me by my friend and longtime San Francisco AIDS advocate Hank Wilson. I've Googled the story all morning and, so far, haven't found a single link to any US media outlets picking up on these tragic events involving people with AIDS in India. Do US editors and reporters (mistakenly) believe American news consumers are not concerned about the terrible plight faced by PWAs not just in India, but indeed, in too many part of the world?

From the Reuters wire:

A pregnant HIV-positive woman was forced to abort her own fetus after staff in a hospital in eastern India refused to help her, officials said on Monday.

In a separate incident in the region, an infected man was stoned by people who feared he might spread the virus. He later died of his injuries.

Investigations in both cases are under way but authorities and activists said such incidents underlined how much stigma and even paranoia was attached to the disease in India. [...]

The 23-year-old woman, who recently tested HIV positive, was shunned last month by doctors and nurses in a state-run Kolkata hospital who told her they would not help her undergo an abortion.

"The hospital had no sympathy for me as I had to pull out the fetus with my hands and clean myself as health workers guided me from a distance," Roshni Mulani, a mother of a two-year-old child, told Reuters.

"They read about my HIV status from medical reports ... and threw medicines from a distance," said Mulani, who is recuperating at the house of anti-AIDS activist Ramen Pandey. [...]

In the neighboring state of Orissa, a 35-year-old man with full-blown AIDS died after he was pelted with stones inside a hospital compound.

"He was strolling in the vicinity when some people threw stones at him last week," Alexander Pahi, a senior police official said over the phone from the coastal town of Puri.

Loknath Mishra tested positive two years ago and was ostracized by his neighbors who feared that he may spread the virus in Puri, a holy town for Hindus.

The victim's brother told police that some people had threatened Mishra after they found out he had AIDS, Pahi said. [...]

In July 2003, an Indian woman was reported to have been stoned to death by panicky relatives and neighbors in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

An HIV positive women forced to abort her fetus and the stoning of a man with AIDS should be news in the American press.