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Access to Treatment, Social Acceptance Offer Hope to HIV-positive Children
Of the nearly 13,000 reported HIV/AIDS cases in Romania, the majority are children, reports a recent study released by the World Bank. In addition to medical concerns, stigmatization and discrimination remain major barriers to HIV-positive children’s educational and social development. However, signs of change are emerging. Romania is now one of few countries worldwide – and the only one in Eastern Europe – to provide universal access to anti-retroviral drugs for HIV-positive children. Large pharmaceutical companies cut their prices as much as 80 percent to make the medications available to Romanian citizens. In 1990,World Vision responded to Romania’s newly discovered AIDS crisis among infants and children, most caused by transfusions or needles used for immunizations without proper sterilization.
This year, World Vision organized its first National Forum for Children Living with AIDS in Constanta County. The forum was designed to raise awareness of children living with AIDS and the problems their families face, as well as to change community attitudes about the children and their disease.
“Changing people’s understanding and attitudes is an enormous challenge here,” said Dr. Christopher Pitt, World Vision’s national director in Romania. “But as these children develop the courage to speak out for themselves, we are seeing adults change the way they treat these kids.”
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