AIDS bomb ticking away in UP villages

MATHURA: Officially known as a low-prevalence state for HIV/AIDS, Uttar Pradesh could well be on a short fuse. Barely a hundred-odd km from Delhi, HIV is spreading in villages which have not even remotely heard about AIDS. "Who is AIDS?" asks a young married woman, while an elderly man calls it an "address" even as houses in their vicinity report deaths due to the virus.
Going by reports of five villages that fall within a 30- to 40-km radius of Mathura, HIV is silently racing through the state.But officials complacently believe that the large number of people that migrate for work - especially to Mumbai, other mobile population such as truck drivers and even the general population are largely immune to the virus.
In Shersah village, a young widow is grieving over the loss of her husband, who was in hospital for more than six months. The 85-year-old mother says the only plot of land, which the family had, has been sold off. The house could be next, says the widow, as her five-year-old clings to her.
What did her husband die of? "He had some pain in his elbow and his chest," she says. It''s only the medical records that reveal the complete story.
In another house, a few yards away in the same village, the older brother''s young widow was given away to the younger one when he died a year or so ago. No one suspected that he had died of diseases brought on by AIDS. A month ago, the younger brother also died. Members of an NGO, who brought him to a testing centre in Delhi, say he was HIV positive. Now, the young widow has refused to be tested fearing the worst, which includes social ostracisation.
At least six recent cases of death and several other cases of infection have gone largely unnoticed. "These cases are not on any official records. And since there are no organised awareness programmes, people are not really coming out," says Nishi Kant, coordinator for Shakti Vahini — an NGO.
While people may not know much about HIV/AIDS, they do react by isolating those who get it.
A small shelter put up right outside this village and next to what one is told is a cremation ground is a grim reminder of such ostracisation. A family was not allowed to move beyond the shelter once the villagers learnt that they were HIV positive. After the death of the husband, the widow was driven out of the village.
Stories of HIV positive people are not very different in other nearby villages. In Jannu village, a woman, who is now on anti-retroviral therapy, is too scared to let the word slip out.
It is difficult to gauge how serious the spread could be. "There is extreme resistance in some villages, especially if people, who we have been put on anti-retroviral therapy, die," says a activists.