It happens around us

[Guest guest]

Told he had HIV, man kills himself on Christmas day

The Indian Express 27 December, 2001-New Delhi

WHILE the world was celebrating Christmas, the Thakore family was mourning the

death of their 32-year-old family member, who committed suicide by jumping from

the fourth floor of Civil Hospital here yesterday morning.

Shocked when he came to learn that he tested positive for AIDS, Jivanlal Thakore

took the easiest way out to escape from the dreaded disease. The incident

occurred after doctors told Jivanlal's relatives that the ELISA test done on the

32-year-old confirmed that he was suffering from AIDS. Jivanlal, who hails from

Kaditaluka of Mehsana, had been ill for the past one month and used to vomit

blood frequently. Though he had consulted local doctor about 20 days ago, the

disease could not be property diagnosed then. So, his relatives brought him to

Civil Hospital on Sunday morning for treatment.

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Jagdish Harsh ( jharsh@... )

François-Xavier Bagnoud (INDIA) ( www.fxb.org )

[Guest guest]

From T

Such tragedies must be anticipated and one of the main purposes of

counselling both before and after testing is to help people cope with the

stress of deciding to test and to internalise the positive result, if that

is what it turns out to be. It looks like a failure of counselling.

ELISA results are provisional, unless tested according to strategy 3

protocol of WHO. It would be a double tragedy if the test was false

positive. Vomiting blood does not sond like HIV diseases, but anything can

happen. Very rarely, in spite of all care and compassion and counselling, people

may go into depression with suicidal tendency.

All of us have the moral respnsibility to follow the established norms of

care and counselling, to avoid this kind of tragedies.

Wish you all a Happy New Year.

TJJ