Another World AIDS Day has come and gone

Another World AIDS Day has come and gone. This day serves as a call to action to remember the millions of people in communities all around the world that are affected by HIV and AIDS.

However, AIDS weighs on my mind far more than once a year. It wasn't until four years ago that I even knew a person who had been impacted by AIDS. I had heard all of the statistics. I knew the severity of the pandemic, especially in counties such as Swaziland and South Africa with some of the highest prevalence rates in the world.

But the severity of the disease and the broader impact on life in affected communities was beyond my comprehension. That was until 2006, when I traded in my comfortable Los Angeles existence working in TV commercial production for a one-year volunteer stint in a rural South African village. My new home at NextAid's Community Center construction site was located in the rural township of Dennilton, Mpumalanga Province.

During my first year of living there, Dennilton had an estimated 30 percent HIV prevalence rate. This number, while astounding, still didn't fully resonate with me until I was able to hear the stories of the locals who were shouldering the burden of a village ravaged by the disease.

Ananda Ghar, the only home for HIV+

Ananda Ghar, the only home for HIV+ children in the state has 42 inmates. Privately run by an NGO at Gobindopur in South 24-Parganas, it claimed that hundreds of infected youngsters from Kolkata and its outskirts were eager to join the home. "At least, 150 children are waiting and we have regular contacts with them. Most are either orphans or social outcasts. This proves that the WBSAPCS data is fabricated. They have neither done a survey nor have any programme to care for these children," said Kallol Ghosh of OFFER, the NGO which runs the home.

What could be even more dangerous is the threat they pose in terms of transmission, many pointed out. "Few of the kids are aware of their status and have no access to Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART). Since a high percentage of them are drug-users, they could well be transmitting the disease," said Tarit Chakraborty, secretary of BNP Plus a network of HIV-positive people.

Less than 25% of the children now receive ART, said an official at the ART centre in Calcutta Medical College Hospital. "There has never been any study or survey. But information from private bodies working across the state, shows the total number of infected children could be more than 3000," said the official.