O J's Corner : Reflections

AIDS Children

The plight of twin-children Amal and Amritha of Cheruvathoor is something that should not fall on any human being, let alone children.

They have not committed any sin for them to be sinned against by the society. An ordinary mortal can blame Fate for the hapless situation in which they have been left off. Anyway let us not offend God Almighty for human frailty. One person’s thoughtless pleasures might have landed generations in this predicament.

Their parents are no more. Their mother breathed her last in 2002. Close on the heels of this bereavement, their father committed suicide. The other day their grandmother passed away. Think about the amount of mental torture they have undergone by now.

They have literally nowhere to go. The State Health Minister has already instructed the officials to extend governmental safeguards to the children. That is nothing compared to unmeasurable parental care.

Perhaps voluntary agencies might adopt them. All this is welcome relief. The crucial question is: what are parents bequeathing to their children? No one can be blamed in this situation.

In this connection, let me draw your attention to an Associated Press report from the United Nations which speaks about the scourge.

As many as five hundred and seventy thousand children have died of AIDS on Planet Earth. There has been one death every minute.

More than two million children, below the age of 15 years, are living with HIV. Most of them are in Sub-Saharan Africa,where there is no access to treatment. Consequently, they would delve themselves into full-blown AIDS, ensuring certain death.

The report painted a grim picture of the impact of the disease on children. Seven hundred thousand kids were infected with the virus in 2005 alone, bringing the total to 2.3 million.

The saddest part of the story is that these deaths are not inevitable. An HIV-positive child would respond well to anti-retroviral treatment.

There is an  urgency in appealing to the governments, donors and the pharmaceutical industry to imbibe the message and deliver proper treatment.

The promise at the UN level was that there would be treatment for all by 2010.

In the last 25 years when AIDS spread around the globe, it has been largely reckoned as a disease of the adults.

The prevalence in children cannot go unnoticed. They are losing parents, teachers, a sense of security and hope for the future, according to the report. They have become the “missing face” of AIDS.

Mother-to-child transmission can be efficaciously prevented. Pregnant women with HIV should be administered drugs which prevents transmission to the young ones.
More and low-cost anti-retroviral drugs should be designed and popularised.

All in all, there must be a massive scaling up of HIV prevention, treatment and care.

I should say, not a soul should be lost on account of HIV-AIDS. Mankind should not be immune to calls for contribution to take on the immunity-killer. It should not be allowed to sign one’s death warrant.