Govt missing,HIV victims fall off health radar

We cannot trace a single patient in the Jhargram-Lalgarh area. As part of the national HIV/AIDS programme,we not only provide medication,counselling and care but each patient is checked on a regular basis and we have to keep track of them. For the past seven days,none of the critical patients can be contacted, says Ranjan Sourav Das,project coordinator of the community care centre.

In collaboration with the Government,the centre sends health workers to each of the HIV patients house. Now that has stopped.

Many of them are critical and on ART. They cannot be traced and no one can reach them. I am more concerned as there is a food shortage and HIV-positive people cannot cope with that, says Dr Anindya Sen,in-charge of the NACO ART Centre at Midnapore Medical College Hospital.

According to records,seven-year-old Jana,son of a shopkeeper in one of the remote villages of Jhargram,has been suffering from thalassaemia since his birth. During routine blood transfusions,he also caught HIV. Referred to the community care centre for treatment,he underwent transfusion and got treated for infections related with HIV before leaving for home last month.

We are very concerned. He needs blood transfusion and regular check-ups. But for the past 14 days,we cannot contact them, said Das. Our community centre has 10 beds. Nine of them are empty now. The one patient we have,ironically,is supposed to go back home. But he is stuck here.

Jibon Mahato (name changed),a 44-year-old HIV-positive patient,is restless to return home to Belpahari. On ART,he was discharged last week,but no one could come to take him back.

I do not know about Maoists or police. I want to go home. After I was diagnosed with HIV,my wife left me. My brother does not come near me. But my mother takes care of me. There is no news of anyone from my family, says Mahato,breaking down.

Tarot Chakraborty,board member of the Indian Network of Positives,a NACO-partnered organisation of AIDS victims,said: The Government should take steps to do something for these people and all other patients who are there. These people should be immediately traced.

There are others suffering too. All five high schools in the Lalgarh area have now been shut for days. Some have been occupied by security forces,others are housing relief camps. While Bhadutolla Vivekananda Uccha Vidyalaya has been shut since June 14,Pirakata High School,Bhimpur High School,Lalgarh High School and Ramgarh High School are closed since June 17. The two dozen primary schools too remain locked.

Roads have been dug up and blockades put up. But still I tried to go to school,only to find it locked. Later,a relief camp opened there. I do not know when this will end, says Sukhen Mahato,a Class X student of Pirakata High School.

I could not collect my admit card from college. My first-year examination is slated for July 1… I am sure I will lose an academic year, says Pinaki Roy,a resident of Lalgarh and a first-year student of Midnapore College. There are so many like me here. There are Madhyamik (Class X) passouts who are yet to reach colleges in Midnapur and take admission.

The Lalgarh Block Development Office,which was shut for the past two months,only opened the day before yesterday after security forces reached the Lalgarh police station. For two months,all government work remained suspended.