Kerala: Panel helps out HIV+ mom, child

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Women's Commission on Tuesday sent a destitute young couple from Karnataka with their newborn girl suspected of having AIDS to Gandhi Bhavan, Pathanapuram from SAT Hospital here. In another noble gesture, KWC plans to donate a day’s salary to the CM's Relief Fund for cyclone victims on Friday.

KWC member Shahida Kamal came to know of the couple after she inaugurated a programme coinciding with World Aids Day on Dec 1 in Kollam. She said the hospital authorities informed her about their plight after her speech appeared in the media against sidelining women who have contracted AIDS. “The young couple had previously worked in Kozhikode where they were living together. Later they moved in here, and the 27-year-old husband started working as a construction labourer. After she got admitted for delivery, her blood tested HIV positive,” Ms Kamal told DC.

The newborn is just 12 days old, and only after one and a half months the hospital authorities can have more clarity on the disease. Gandhi Bhavan has already been taking care of three AIDS patients with one of them living for more than seven years. The young woman is not aware of the seriousness of her illness and looked cheerful. But her partner’s body language revealed that he is scared of the stigma.

“The young mother pleaded with me to help her. KWC is confident that the family will be taken care of at Gandhi Bhavan. We hope the newborn is HIV negative,” Ms Kamal said. She and KWC chairperson M. C. Josephine had a tough time taking the family to an ambulance as people zoomed their mobile cameras on them. The couple got panicky seeing the crowd and Ms Josephine threatened to confiscate their mobile phones. The SAT hospital authorities footed their travel bills.