Tainted blood victim deals with adversity
What do you say to a six-year-old girl who, through no fault of her own, has been infected with HIV? News 5’s Jacqueline Woods spent some time this week with a young lady we’ll call “Maria.” While she has been forced to deal with things that at this point she cannot understand, there are other aspects to her situation that are all too painfully familiar.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
The past four months have not been easy for six-year-old “Maria” and her family. Since the little girl was transfused with HIV tainted blood, “Maria’s” parents have been trying to cope with the tragedy.
Father
“Up to now I don’t tell her nothing because I don’t have the strength to tell her that she has that sickness. And I believe that even if I tell her that she has that sickness, she is a little girl and she might not understand what is the problem about this HIV incident that they had in the hospital with her.”
In January, “Maria”, who suffers from sickle cell anaemia, was hit with a stroke. As a result, she was required to receive monthly transfusions to prevent the condition from recurring. On March thirtieth, at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital she was given the bad blood.
Father
“From since this incident took place in the hospital, no one from the Ministry of Health has ever phoned me, they know my number. The way I see it, it’s like they already do this damage and they already say it is done, it is finished just forget it, because no one is helping me in a financial way or in a different way, to at least come around and ask about how is the little girl. No one, No one.”
Not even “Maria’s” friends have been at the house. The parents say it distresses them to see how their daughter, who once had many companions, has been alienated because of her condition.
Mother
“I feel very bad. We have some friends who do not come over now. First, they use to come everyday, now they don’t come. It looks like they are afraid of her and she could ask then come, come, come and they don’t come.”
“Maria” does not understand why her playmates are no longer around. The family says sometimes she feels lonely and the only contact she has had comes from her family and toys.
Jacqueline Woods
“Maria and her family are being abandoned by their friends because of ignorance…A stigma about people with HIV that has no basis in fact.”
Rodel Beltran Perera, Director of the Alliance Against Aids, says that the prejudice is a disheartening reality, but people must understand that you cannot get the virus simply through casual contact.
Rodel Beltran Perera, Director, A.A.A.
“The main way of getting it is through sexual contact. You have to have unprotected sex for the virus to be transmitted to you. The other ways you cannot get it–and those are the beliefs and those are the myths that causes stigmatisation–like you go and use the bathroom right after somebody uses the toilet is infected. That is not true, or drinking from a coffee cup or a mug from an infected person, that is not also true. You cannot get the virus in that manner. If a person that is HIV positive or a person living with AIDS shares a hamburger…you can’t get it by sharing food.”
The family is a client of A.A.A. The organisation not only treats persons infected with HIV/Aids but also counsels those who have been affected.
Rodel Beltran Perera
“We provide them with that emotional support that we find is very important, to not only the infected person but also the affected person. We’ve also been seeking some assistance to assist that family because there are in need. They are in need to fill that void of spending their salaries and earnings throughout the weeks and throughout the months that have been taken up now by other unexpected expenses.”
Those expenses have put a strain on the family’s savings.
Father
“Well financially it has affected the family a lot. The Minister of Health is helping us with medicine only, medicine only and nothing else. I had some finance, some savings and all my savings already finished.”
Twice a day “Maria” is treated with anti-retroviral drugs but each dose is a struggle for the entire family. The medication is very bitter and the mother has a difficult time administering it. “Maria” says she does not like how the medicine tastes and it makes her sleepy and sometimes ill.
Father
“This is the medication she is taking and she takes it daily, twice a day sometimes, three times a day.”
Jacqueline Woods
“How long does the medication lasts?”
Father
“Well the medication last sometimes twenty or twenty five days. After the medication is finished I have to go to the hospital, to the doctor to see if they can replace more.”
Jacqueline Woods
“While “Maria” contracted HIV through an error by medical authorities, there are many more children who have acquired the virus from their mothers at birth or even through sexual assault. But how one became infected is irrelevant; the loneliness and pain needlessly inflicted by society produces a hurt that unites them all. Reporting for News Five I…am Jacqueline Woods.”
According to Glenn Tillett, the public relations officer in
the Ministry of Health, the ministry is presently assisting the family with medication and has offered counselling. Tillett says they would like to help the family with more assistance, but because of a lawsuit brought against the government, their ability to help is limited.
