Insensitive PGI discharges man on learning HIV status

CHANDIGARH: At a time when the international medical community is euphoric about the encouraging trail of the AIDS vaccine, an HIV-positive patient was made painfully aware of the stigma attached to the disease when PGI allegedly discharged him upon learning about his condition. Apprehensive at having ���caught��� the virus during the patient���s physical examination, the institute���s jittery staff would have had their way had an NGO and the media not intervened.
A resident of Sector 52, Puneet (name changed) was admitted to PGI���s ENT department on Wednesday after he complained of ulcers in the mouth. Doctors and other staffers reportedly did not know that the 34-year-old was HIV positive and was on antiretroviral therapy.
On Thursday, when the patient���s reports and medical history were scanned, he was allegedly asked to leave at once. Due to ulcers, Puneet had been unable to eat anything for the past 10 days, and was physically very weak. Charging PGI with apathy and accusing Puneet���s doctors of harshness, his wife Meena (name changed) also HIV-positive said, ���Not only were we put in an embarrassing situation, but my husband���s health was also compromised on as he was immediately issued a discharge slip.���
Unwilling to take the discrimination, Meena contacted Chandigarh network of People Living With AIDS. ���The staff kept on repeating that they could have been infected as they had touched the patient. Instead of using special care to treat him, they discharged Puneet. When we threatened to call a press conference, they finally admitted him again,��� said Pooja Thakur, president of the NGO.
Though a written complaint was submitted to PGI���s medical superintendent, institute spokesperson Manju Wadwalkar cryptically remarked, ���We will look into the matter.���