As arrangements are being made for the observance of World AIDS Day on December 1 with a campaign to create awareness about the disease and to combat the stigma being experienced by HIV/AIDS patients, the district administration, district panchayat, and Health Department personnel here have found themselves faced with a case of discrimination against an anganwadi worker who the local people suspect is an HIV-positive case.
The lone worker at the local anganwadi at Mayyil has been at the receiving end of the discrimination of the local residents for the past several months on their mere suspicion that she is HIV-infected. As local people have withdrawn their children from the anganwadi, the authorities are trying to create an atmosphere in the area that would put an end to the current tendency to stigmatise and discriminate against HIV/AIDS patients.
“The incident at Mayyil has shown that more needs to be done to clear people’s misperceptions about health issues,” said District Collector Mir Mohammed Ali at a press conference held on Tuesday to announce the programmes being arranged for the AIDS Day. The local people’s suspicion is based on their assumption that the anganwadi worker is HIV-infected.
As awareness initiatives would be organised at Mayyil to clear people’s apprehensions about the disease, moves were on to appoint an additional worker at the anganwadi to bring the children back, he said.
The issue over the suspected HIV-positive case has surfaced since last year. Meetings of local residents were organised under the initiative of local MLA James Mathew to persuade the people to send their children back to the anganwadi. District Medical Officer K. Narayana Nayak said that without the consent of the HIV/AIDS patients, their names could not be disclosed.
“Treating an individual in a discriminatory way on the basis of suspicion cannot be accepted,” said district panchayat president K.V. Sumesh, who was also at the press meet. Special campaigns would be conducted in the area as part of the HIV/AIDS Day observance, he said adding that the district panchayat would take the matter seriously.
On December 1, a function would be held at the Krishna Menon Memorial Government Women’s College here to create HIV/AIDS awareness among students. Health Department officials said the number of HIV-infected cases in the district had come down from 100 new cases every year in the past to around 60 now.
They said that while unprotected sex was the main cause of infection in the State, increase in the use of drugs had raised concern about possible infection from use of used syringes.
