KOLKATA - A pregnant
HIV-positive woman was forced to abort her own foetus 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.
An estimated 5.7 million Indians live with HIV, more people than in any other
country, according to the United Nations.
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 foetus 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.
"Many health workers in India still think AIDS can spread by just touching,"
Pandey said.
In the neighbouring 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 ostracised by his
neighbours 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.
Many Indians feel that eating or touching a person with HIV could result in
the virus spreading to them.
In July 2003, an Indian woman was reported to have been stoned to death by
panicky relatives and neighbours in the southern state of Andhra
Pradesh.
