India's AIDS Victims Find Few Safety Nets

The article is 3 and a half years old but it is very touching to read.

An Indian Lady, Chakravarty, had just lost her husband to AIDS, and she and her 4-year-old son are also infected by the disease. Her family and friends don't want to help her out, even though she is very poor, because they don't have sufficient information to help, and feel she is contagious. She has been turned away from hospitals. She found refuge in Sahara, one of the capital city's few refuges for people with AIDS.

Residents at the centers have learned how to take care of themselves and one another, including Chakravarty and her son.

Bill & Melinda Gates help set up this center in Sahara. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has promised $200 million to combat AIDS in India, but none of it is likely to be of help to people like Chakravarty. Bill Gates isn't much interested in paying for AIDS treatment or care. He want to set up a system to focus on AIDS prevention, not the treatment of AIDS victims.

We have to ask ourselves if this is what we need, a prevention plan, when some people that are out there with AIDS don't even know it.


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/globalhealth/151515_nisha08.html