World Aids Day: Woman reels from HIV, TB and cancer, all at once

Vinita Sharma, 35, keeps staring into space while waiting for her turn in the Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) centre at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). In the past four months, Vinita has lost over 15 kilos. She has been reduced to skin and bones. Her cheeks have sunk and her jaw bones are starkly visible. Two years ago, her world shattered after she discovered that she had been infected with HIV by her second husband. She was married off at 12 and her first husband had died when she was 18. By then she also had three children, who are currently in Bengaluru with her mother. Vinita had migrated to Delhi with her employer soon after her first husband's death. She feels that since she migrated her life has been on a downslide. Years ago, Vinita had gotten herself sterilised.

"My second husband took me to a private nursing home and got my sterilisation undone. Since I developed cancerous tumours in the uterus, I also realised that I was HIV positive. Huge blood clots were removed from my uterus," she said. Even as she was recovering from cancer, she developed tuberculosis in the lungs. "I was on medication for cancer, HIV and tuberculosis. I was just about coping with these ailments when I was struck with appendicitis and had to get operated. I weigh only 30 kilos currently," she said. Vinita had saved close to Rs 1 lakh while working as a house maid in Delhi. Most of her money was usurped by her husband. The rest was spent on medicines.

"Currently I have no money. I had borrowed Rs 80,000 from my employer and now I am bound to work for her to pay off the loans," she said. Vinita paints a tragic picture of patients suffering from HIV who reel under multiple co-infections due to lowered immunity. In her case, it was also cancer and TB. "My husband now asks me to go away. Where will I go now? We stay in a small shanty. He drinks alcohol and beats me up everyday," said Vinita.