India: The HIV-hunger cycle
By Sugata Mukhopadhyay, HDN Key Correspondent, India
Let me tell you a story; of a woman who got HIV from her husband. There are so many stories of poor women who are infected by their husbands that you might ask what is special about this one. In many ways my story is sadly an ordinary one. But to me it is not only shocking but can teach us a hard lesson: Hunger and HIV are inextricably linked.
Sandhya (not her real name) was in her early thirties, living with her husband and two children in one of the cities in South India. Her husband was working in the private sector and had a good income. They had a happy life.
But things did not last. Sandhya’s husband suddenly fell ill and his symptoms, in the course of time, became chronic. He experienced rapid loss of weight, swollen glands, fevers and diarrhoea. His doctor finally gave him an HIV test which came back positive.
Sadly, Sandhya’s husband died despite attempts by the doctors to prolong his life. Sandhya and her two children were forced to move to her in-laws house.
At some point Sandhya also took an HIV test and was found to be positive too. Things got worse. Her in-laws threw her and her two small children out of the house. They thought Sandhya was woman of immoral character and that she had passed the virus to her husband causing his premature death.
Sandhya literally ended up on the street. She did not find any support from her parents or other relatives, nor could she find a job. Nobody wants to give people with HIV a job.
When hunger became intolerable, with the two small children to support, Sandhya made the boldest decision of her life. She became a sex worker.
So the crux of the story is, if you are hungry and your children are hungry, you will do whatever you can to survive.
Sandhya did not do anything different from what many would do in her place. She tried to provide enough food for her children and dreamt of a better future for them. Please don’t look at Sandhya’s story through the lens of morality.
My issue is not related to morality or sex work. It is food insecurity that makes people vulnerable to HIV. Sandhya is one such vulnerable woman but throughout the world there are millions of people who do not have enough food for themselves or their children and AIDS is constantly knocking at their doors.
More than 800 million people on earth know what is like to go to bed hungry. Around 200 million children below 5 years are underweight because they don’t get enough food. One child dies every five seconds from hunger and related causes. In India, which produces enough food for all its people, there are still incidences of death from hunger, and food insecurity is common place.
Food insecurity, most of the time, is man made and inevitably leads to corruption of human integrity thus generating numerous marginalized, hungry and humiliated populations all over the world. Hunger is the natural trigger mechanism for de-humanizing events like human trafficking, prostitution, drug use, child labour and migration pushing millions of people into the vacuum of AIDS. On the other hand, those already infected by HIV are constantly restrained from producing and utilizing food, being hobbled by disability, denial and discrimination. The cycle goes on incessantly making the virus even more deadly.
This is the HIV-hunger cycle gradually taking the shape of the ultimate destroyer and silently preparing to make the final assault in the form of AIDS.
Sandhya’s story is a perfect example of the HIV-hunger cycle. Breaking this cycle is probably the toughest challenge in tackling HIV/AIDS. I strongly believe that it is not condoms, ARV drugs, microbicides nor vaccines but an uninterrupted supply of food to the hungry people of the world that can really make the difference in reversing the pandemic.
As a doctor I have no medicine for AIDS so I am prescribing ‘food’ as medicine. Fight HIV with food if you really want to hit back at AIDS.
HDN Key Correspondent Team
Email: correspondents@hdnet.org
Web: www.healthdev.org/kc
HDN 2006 - Reproduction welcomed
Let me tell you a story; of a woman who got HIV from her husband. There are so many stories of poor women who are infected by their husbands that you might ask what is special about this one. In many ways my story is sadly an ordinary one. But to me it is not only shocking but can teach us a hard lesson: Hunger and HIV are inextricably linked.
Sandhya (not her real name) was in her early thirties, living with her husband and two children in one of the cities in South India. Her husband was working in the private sector and had a good income. They had a happy life.
But things did not last. Sandhya’s husband suddenly fell ill and his symptoms, in the course of time, became chronic. He experienced rapid loss of weight, swollen glands, fevers and diarrhoea. His doctor finally gave him an HIV test which came back positive.
Sadly, Sandhya’s husband died despite attempts by the doctors to prolong his life. Sandhya and her two children were forced to move to her in-laws house.
At some point Sandhya also took an HIV test and was found to be positive too. Things got worse. Her in-laws threw her and her two small children out of the house. They thought Sandhya was woman of immoral character and that she had passed the virus to her husband causing his premature death.
Sandhya literally ended up on the street. She did not find any support from her parents or other relatives, nor could she find a job. Nobody wants to give people with HIV a job.
When hunger became intolerable, with the two small children to support, Sandhya made the boldest decision of her life. She became a sex worker.
So the crux of the story is, if you are hungry and your children are hungry, you will do whatever you can to survive.
Sandhya did not do anything different from what many would do in her place. She tried to provide enough food for her children and dreamt of a better future for them. Please don’t look at Sandhya’s story through the lens of morality.
My issue is not related to morality or sex work. It is food insecurity that makes people vulnerable to HIV. Sandhya is one such vulnerable woman but throughout the world there are millions of people who do not have enough food for themselves or their children and AIDS is constantly knocking at their doors.
More than 800 million people on earth know what is like to go to bed hungry. Around 200 million children below 5 years are underweight because they don’t get enough food. One child dies every five seconds from hunger and related causes. In India, which produces enough food for all its people, there are still incidences of death from hunger, and food insecurity is common place.
Food insecurity, most of the time, is man made and inevitably leads to corruption of human integrity thus generating numerous marginalized, hungry and humiliated populations all over the world. Hunger is the natural trigger mechanism for de-humanizing events like human trafficking, prostitution, drug use, child labour and migration pushing millions of people into the vacuum of AIDS. On the other hand, those already infected by HIV are constantly restrained from producing and utilizing food, being hobbled by disability, denial and discrimination. The cycle goes on incessantly making the virus even more deadly.
This is the HIV-hunger cycle gradually taking the shape of the ultimate destroyer and silently preparing to make the final assault in the form of AIDS.
Sandhya’s story is a perfect example of the HIV-hunger cycle. Breaking this cycle is probably the toughest challenge in tackling HIV/AIDS. I strongly believe that it is not condoms, ARV drugs, microbicides nor vaccines but an uninterrupted supply of food to the hungry people of the world that can really make the difference in reversing the pandemic.
As a doctor I have no medicine for AIDS so I am prescribing ‘food’ as medicine. Fight HIV with food if you really want to hit back at AIDS.
HDN Key Correspondent Team
Email: correspondents@hdnet.org
Web: www.healthdev.org/kc
HDN 2006 - Reproduction welcomed
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 5:20 pm
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