The Hindu : T.N. doctors shun AIDS patients

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 08, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

T.N. doctors shun AIDS patients

By Feroze Ahmed

CHENNAI MARCH 7. Despite Tamil Nadu's claims to high AIDS awareness, it is still one of the most regressive States, with more than 90 per cent doctors refusing to treat people with HIV/AIDS. A fact that forces these patients to go to the highly-stigmatised sexually transmitted disease (STD) wards of Government hospitals even for common colds. They would not get treatment elsewhere. It is a rule among doctors to direct HIV positive patients to STD cells for any ailment, for fear of contracting the virus.

In Tamil Nadu, the high level of awareness has not translated into action. When Rekha (name changed) went to the General Hospital in Chennai for what appeared to be a gynaecology problem, she was sent to the STD department. After diagnosis, they referred her to the gynaecology ward, which turned her out. She was turned out again at the Government Hospital for Women in Egmore. She was finally treated in the Government TB Sanatorium, Tambaram, but, as she had not been seen by a gynaecologist she has been living in agony for the last six months.

In another instance, a patient who rushed late night to a primary health care centre in Tambaram with severe stomach-ache, informed the nurse that she was HIV-positive and asked her to wear protective gear if necessary. The nurse cursed her, abused her, and chased her out. (Doctors usually have no way of telling if a patient is HIV-positive or not unless the patients inform the doctor, which they do to protect others from risk.) A senior doctor in a Government Hospital here admitted that the pattern existed: "Some doctors refuse treatment because, though informed, they are still frightened for their lives."

They are so terrified that, according to the `Behavioural Surveillance Survey - Rural Round II - 2002' conducted by TNSACS, 83 per cent doctors said they would direct HIV/AIDS cases to Government STD clinics and another nine per cent declared that they would refuse to treat such people. That leaves only eight per cent doctors to treat HIV/AIDS patients in rural Tamil Nadu for any ailment.

The report, released this week, also defines a different kind of fear: "This tendency of not treating HIV/AIDS cases is due to the inherent fear that they will be blacklisted as AIDS doctors, thereby losing their regular practice".

It adds that the doctors included in the survey treated at least 1,800 such cases last year, "which is significant in the rural settings". On-ground practice, however, exposes a severe drought in awareness among doctors. After surgeries on HIV/AIDS patients in Government Hospitals, most of the equipment used in the operations are destroyed. "That is totally unnecessary," points out a TNSACS official.

"In a recent interactive television programme, someone asked a participating doctor why they refused to treat HIV/AIDS patients for common ailments. He replied, `Why should we? Even we have our families.' And this was on air," says an indignant P. Kousalya, president of the Positive Women Network of South India, an HIV-positive patient herself. "When even doctors are so ignorant, how do we expect awareness of others."

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