HIV affected woman denied treatment, delivers outside hospital

An HIV affected woman was forced to deliver her baby outside a government hospital after she was allegedly denied treatment by the doctors in eastern Uttar Pradesh's Ambedkar Nagar district.
        
The 28 year old pregnant woman, a resident of Jahageeraganj locality in Amdedkar Nagar, went to Mahatma Jyotiba Phule district hospital last evening in the district, 60 km from here.
 
"Doctors and other medical staff refused to treat the woman, as she was HIV positive and asked the family to take her somewhere else," social activist Manoj Mishra told reporters here. "The woman delivered the baby outside the hospital gates when she was being taken to another facility".
 
District Chief Medical Officer Liaqat Ali said that an enquiry has been initiated into the incident.
 
"It is yet to be conclusively established that treatment was denied because the patient was HIV positive," he said.
 
Mishra, however, contended, that staff of the district hospital knew the couple very well as both had gone through HIV tests in this hospital.

Asked about the condition of the mother and the newborn, Ali said: "They are under our supervision. Both of them are doing fine".