AIDS Retains Stigma in Eastern Europe
AIDS
retains stigma in Eastern Europe, as fears rise of impending
catastrophe
Adrian Calea found out he was HIV positive when he accidentally
saw a doctor's note in his mother's purse when he was 10.
Two years later, he learned on the Internet exactly what that
meant."
I thought about slitting my wrist," he said. "But then, I
thought if I am going to die of this disease, at least I am
going to go down fighting."
Calea is now 18, a student and hip-hop artist, healthy because
of a cocktail of antiretroviral drugs. He is one of more than
7,000 Romanian children who were infected between 1987 and 1990
because the communist regime made it a practice to reuse
syringes and give transfusions of untested blood.
Romania ended up with half the HIV-positive children in Europe.
The dirty needles are long gone. But a quarter century after
AIDS was discovered, many HIV-infected people in Romania and the
rest of Eastern Europe continue to struggle with discrimination
and poverty.
Calea was forced to drop out of school in the southern Romanian
city of Alexandria when he was diagnosed with HIV in 1998. The
principal told his family that other parents would protest.
He now plans to play his music and visit schools to raise
awareness about AIDS. He is probably the first HIV-infected
person in Romania to publicize his condition to fight the
stigma.
But AIDS remains controversial.
After officially denying the existence of AIDS during the
communist years, Romania now requires AIDS tests for people
getting married or applying for jobs _ a rule activists say
perpetuates discrimination.
Health experts warn that infection rates in Eastern Europe will
skyrocket if countries fail to adopt more pragmatic policies.
Ukraine has a national AIDS law that is recognized as a model in
the region because it incorporates human rights protections for
people living with HIV/AIDS. But the law is often disregarded,
with patients often turned away by doctors when they seek help.
Ukrainian officials say more than 80,000 people have been
registered HIV-positive since the first reported case in 1987.
But other experts say as many as 500,000 people _ 1 percent of
Ukraine's population _ could be infected.
Human Rights Watch accused the government this year of police
abuse and medical discrimination against HIV/AIDS victims. The
official stigma means HIV-infected people are marginalized _
forced into isolation in hospitals or their homes.
In Russia, there are 334,000 registered HIV-infected people. But
the U.N. AIDS agency puts the figure at nearly 900,000 and
others say the total could be above 1 million _ around 1 percent
of Russia's population.
The disease is rapidly spreading beyond traditional risk groups
_ drug users, gay men and prostitutes _ into the wider Russian
population through unprotected heterosexual sex, with young
people particularly vulnerable.
In Romania, about 11,000 people have HIV or AIDS, with about
350-500 new infections per year. However, infections could
increase as the country's HIV children grow up into adulthood.
Parents in Romania are not required to inform the children they
are infected until they are 18. Experts say the age should be
lowered to 14.
Adrian Streinu-Cercel, who coordinates Romania's AIDS program,
said about 20 percent of HIV-positive children are still unaware
they are infected because parents are afraid to tell them.
"They already ask their parents 'why do we take so many pills?'"
said Streinu-Cercel.
Calea hopes to spearhead a new rights movement and wants to
encourage others to come out about their condition, saying that
he felt liberated after he stopped denying that he was
HIV-positive.
"Instead of waiting around, hoping for the elusive vaccine, we
should try to improve our situation," he said. "I want to fight
against discrimination ... It's about my future."
Source: Associated Press:
writers Mara Bellaby in Kiev and Henry Meyer in Moscow.
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