AND SO I GO YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW

“Russia has one of the fastest growing Aids epidemics in the world, with 100 new infections every day. Increasingly, women and their infants are being affected.

         Latest figures show 22,000 babies have been born to HIV-positive women. And many are being abandoned by their mothers into the care of the state.”

        The article went on to say it takes doctors 18 months to confirm that babies are HIV positive and so the babies must stay in the hospital until they are diagnosed. Those who are AIDS positive will remain living at the hospital because they are the unwanted, reminds one of the leprosy untouchables in the Bible doesn’t it? In Russia this is indeed the attitude towards people with AIDS.

        But I remember well two cases of children with AIDS in the 1980’s when we lived in Florida and the parents wanted to send these children to public school. The public outcry against allowing this was loud and clear. The state however forced the schools to allow the children to attend classes.    One little girl was allowed to attend school but then had to sit at a desk isolated from all other desks and not permitted to play on the playground with the other children.  Indeed a show of compassion.

       One family had two boys with hemophilia who were infected because of their necessary blood transfusions. One evening when the family was away their house was burned to the ground. They left Florida.

       Most of us have come a long way towards understanding AIDS and showing people infected with more compassion.

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Another story concerning abandoned children in Russia was also in the BBC report. The mother of a child being treated in a hospital heard muffled mumbling and went to investigate. She found babies with tape over their mouths. When she asked a nurse why this was the nurse said their crying disturbed the nurses and told her to mind her own business. Luckily she had used her cell phone to take pictures to document this abuse. What will be done about this abuse however is not certain because Russia’s orphanages are much like the stereo types of Little Orphan Annie fame.