June 29, 2007

India’s Labor Pains

An HIV-positive pregnant woman was refused hospital assistance last night when she went into labor at an Uttar Pradesh hospital, forcing her husband to deliver their baby boy himself as doctors looked on. The Indian government hopes to combat such incidents of anti-HIV stigma with a national safe sex campaigner in the model of Thailand’s “Condom Man,” Mechai Viravaidya—they just haven’t found him yet.