Baby with HIV draws public sympathy

Baby with HIV draws public sympathy

JAKARTA (JP): Recent reports about an unidentified baby who
contracted Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) from its mother
tugged at laypeople's heartstrings.

Several people interviewed by The Jakarta Post expressed
sympathy and concern about the first baby to be registered as HIV
victim last month.

A book shop attendant at the Senen shopping center in Central
Jakarta said he never heard about HIV-positive baby before. "I
know about AIDS... it has no cure, but I don't know that a baby
can get it too," Priyanto said.

He said he pitied the helpless baby. "The baby can't help
itself. It's fortunate that there's only one HIV baby."

The baby was one of the 11 people added to the government's
list of people with HIV or Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome
(AIDS), which now stands at 449.

Sukiryono, a taxi driver, blamed prostitution for the
increasing number of people with AIDS, and for the infection of
the baby.

"People can't blame the baby for contracting the disease...
it's a pity it can't enjoy it's life longer," said Sukiryono who
has four grown-ups children.

"People need more religious teachings to help them stay in the
right path," he added.

Dewi Handayani, a student of a private university in Central
Jakarta said she did not know much about AIDS, but still pitied
the baby.

"I don't know much about the disease, but I know it's a
deathly syndrome. It's a pity a baby has to suffer. It can't
protect itself," Dewi said.

Suhartini, a mother of two children and lives in Cempaka Putih
area, Central Jakarta, said she knows about AIDS from television.

"It's adults who should protect themselves from the disease so
that it does not infect their children," Suhartini said. "In this
case, it's the adults who should be blamed."

Suhartini said she would never ostracize people with HIV or
AIDS, whether babies or adults, should they are found to live in
her own neighborhood.

"The television and newspapers said AIDS does not infect
people easily. I don't think there's (great danger of being
infected) if I live around people with HIV or AIDS," she said.

People with AIDS is the same with any other people who deserve
to be treated well. "My religion teaches me that people should
help one another," Suhartini said.

Dewi Handayani said she wouldn't know how to treat people with
HIV or AIDS. "What if I made mistakes?" she asked.

Officials have recorded five babies as having born from
mothers with HIV, the most recent one was born in the Sanglah
Hospital in Denpasar, Bali, in August.

The other babies are from Bojonegoro and Malang in East Java,
from Jayapura in Irian Jaya and from Jakarta. None of the five
babies had previously been reported as contracting HIV.

Officials refused to reveal whether the baby who was tested
HIV positive was from among the five babies.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that until
January this year there were 5.5 million HIV-positive children in
the world: 2.3 million of them have developed AIDS. (ste)