Thousands of young Romanians with HIV face a life of discrimination, says a report by an international human rights organisation.
The report by Human Rights Watch says that a study of more than 7200 Romanian teenagers aged 15–19 who are infected with HIV shows that a failure by the government to combat discrimination against these young people has left them open to abuse and neglect.
They are unprepared for adult life, the group said, and the state has no plan for them, despite being aware of the problem for at least a decade.
Human rights groups and other non-governmental organisations have warned for years that thousands of people who had contracted HIV in hospitals during the regime of the communist dictator Nicolae Ceauºescu and in the first few years after he was overthrown in 1989 have been marginalised in society.
Many of the children were infected between 1986 and 1991 by transfusions carried out in the belief, by the authorities at the time, that the procedure would boost their immune systems. In the early 1990s more than 50% of children in Europe infected with HIV were in Romania. Most contracted the disease in the late 1980s, when transfusions were carried out in which unscreened blood was transfused, needles were reused, and medical instruments were not properly sterilised. Under Ceauºescu’s regime the country’s citizens were kept in the dark about HIV and AIDS.
Widespread prejudice in Romania means that people with HIV or AIDS in all age groups face discrimination and isolation. Human Rights Watch said that its four month study showed that less than 60% of young people with HIV go to school and that those who do go are often abused by teachers and other pupils.
The group also said that doctors often deny medical treatment to people with HIV. Bureaucratic delays and discrimination bar many HIV positive children and teenagers from being prescribed the drugs needed to treat opportunistic diseases.
Breaches of confidentiality by medical personnel, school officials, and government workers, leading to people being identified in their communities as HIV positive, are common and are rarely punished.
Despite the government’s stated commitment to providing universal access of patients to antiretroviral treatment, interruptions in supplies of the drugs are common in some regions of the country.
“Romania has come a long way towards fulfilling its commitment to provide antiretroviral medications to those who need them,” said Clarisa Bencomo, a children’s rights researcher for Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “But children living with HIV need more than just medications. Even more than adults they need protection and support.”
But Adrian Streinu-Cercel, co-president of the Romanian health ministry’s committee for the fight against AIDS, said: “I do not understand why there is all this criticism of the HIV and AIDS programme in Romania, since all the sick people have access to antiretroviral drugs and treatment for side effects and complications.” Dr Streinu-Cercel said that state health insurance covered 100% of the cost of antiretroviral treatment and 50% to 60% of the cost of treatment of opportunistic diseases.
“Life Doesn’t Wait”: Romania’s Failure to Protect and Support Children and Youth Living with HIV is available at http://hrw.org.