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HEALTH-MEXICO: HIV/AIDS Patients Abandoned by State and Community
By Pilar Franco
MEXICO CITY, Dec 31 (IPS) - Losing her public health coverage after she quit
her cleaning job due to poor health was like a virtual death sentence for
María Isabel Salgado, one of the 150,000 cases of HIV/AIDS reported in the
past 20 years in Mexico.
Salgado, 47, a widow with just a grade school education and six children
between the ages of 12 and 23, decided to go public with her case to show a
real face behind the statistics on AIDS in Mexico, where one woman is
infected for every six men.
The former employee of an office cleaning firm told IPS that she had to
quit her job three months ago, when she could no longer hide her condition,
nine years after being diagnosed as HIV-positive.
Salgado found out she was living with HIV, the AIDS virus, shortly before
the death of her husband Vicente Díaz Bustamante, who worked as a masseur in
a public bath in the Mexican capital.
After losing 10 kgs and suffering severe kidney problems as well as
pneumonia and other opportunistic infections brought on by her HIV-positive
condition, the pressure at work because of her health status began to
increase, and she quit.
''I couldn't stand the constant questions about how haggard and gaunt I
looked, and since I could see people suspected I had AIDS, I preferred to
leave before suffering rejection'' at work, she explained.
''I was afraid of a repeat of the attitude of some of my neighbours, who
stopped talking to me when they found out about my illness,'' said Salgado.
After becoming unemployed, ''I applied for a pension since I'm not able
to do such heavy work now.'' But the social security system decided that ''I
looked like I was in good health,'' she said.
Losing her public health coverage despite the fact that she is
HIV-positive led to the interruption of Salgado's treatment, as she was no
longer able to afford the antiretroviral drugs that delay the onset of
full-blown AIDS.
''Now I feel like I've been sentenced to death,'' said Salgado, who with
the support of the non-governmental Community United in Response to AIDS has
continued her battle to receive medical attention, and the no-less difficult
struggle to find a new job.
The director of the Centre for Professional Attention to People with
HIV/AIDS (CAPSIDA), Martín Luna Sámano, said that HIV/AIDS patients suffer
frequent violations of their human rights in public health institutions.
The joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS reported that stigma and
discrimination are among the biggest obstacles to the tasks of prevention
and providing adequate health care for patients. ''Many sick people simply
stop going to the health centres if they feel rejected,'' he told IPS.
One form of discrimination in Mexico is the lack of a policy guaranteeing
sufficient and timely supplies of antiretroviral drugs. Refusal to treat
HIV/AIDS patients in the emergency wards of state hospitals and other public
health institutions and the lack of medicine to treat them are both
violations of the right to health, said Luna Sámano.
The absence of effective sex education programmes has also contributed to
the rise in the number of AIDS cases among women in Mexico, he added.
Since the first cases of HIV/AIDS were documented in Mexico two decades
ago, the proportion has gone from 21 men living with HIV for every woman to
a ratio of six to one, he pointed out.
''CAPSIDA's nine years of work has shown us that most Mexican women
living with HIV are infected by their husbands through sexual transmission,
and tend to only go to the doctor when they are in an advanced stage of the
illness,'' he said.
''Married women do not perceive themselves to be at risk, and they have
been raised with the idea that they must put the needs of their families
first. Both factors contribute to the tendency among female patients to
visit the doctor too late.''
Another sign that the problem is getting worse is the fact that the age
of women living with HIV ranged between 24 and 35 years two decades ago, and
now the disease often affects women as young as 18, Luna Sámano noted.
Women with AIDS ''continue dying in Mexico due to the fact that many lack
access to the antiretroviral drugs. On the other hand, HIV/AIDS patients are
one of the best organised groups, compared to people with diseases like
cancer or diabetes,'' he added.
There is no well-documented information on the irregularities committed
in public health institutions against AIDS patients, who generally do not
report the situation for fear of losing their right to public health
coverage, the director of CAPSIDA pointed out.
The non-governmental Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Centre provided
legal assistance last year in 33 individual and collective cases of
discrimination against AIDS patients, and this year has taken on three cases
of labour discrimination.
The rights group has protested the administration of AIDS tests to people
without their consent by private companies and the Secretariat (ministry) of
National Defence.
The Centre found cases of unjustified dismissals of employees after they
were discovered to test positive for HIV. In another case, an employee was
forced to continue working and was denied his right to a disability pension.
Defenders of the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS in Mexico are
demanding that the Federal Labour Law - which allows employers to demand
the proof they consider necessary for hiring employees or keeping them on
the payroll - be brought into line with the statute that establishes that
testing positive for HIV cannot be considered grounds for dismissal.
The Mexican state has signed international treaties, declarations and
conventions on human rights, nearly all of which have been ratified by
parliament. ''But we have to move from words to action,'' said Luna Sámano.
(END/2002)
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