World AIDS Day : Children with HIV / AIDS in the Dominican Republic

Mon01Dec2008

World AIDS Day : Children with HIV / AIDS in the Dominican Republic

10:56 H | Topics: Children - Dominican Republic - Health

In the Dominican Republic there are 1033 children registered as having HIV. The grandmother of one of these children, 2 year old "Mariano", says that one of the hardest things to deal with is the discrimination her grandson faces.

Su abuela doña María, con los ojos húmedos, cuenta que para ella lo más difícil es la discriminación y el rechazo “me duele porque en el barrio los vecinos saben que mi hijo murió de sida y no les gusta que mi nieto juegue con sus hijos, por eso no lo quiero mandar ni a la escuela”.

[My translation] With tears in her eyes, the boy's grandmother, Doña Maria, tells that the hardest thing is the discrimination and the rejection. "It hurts me because in my neighborhood, the neighbors know my son died of AIDS and they don't like for my grandson to play with their children, and that's why I don't even want to send him to school

In the Dominican Republic there are 26 centers equipped to work with HIV/AIDS patients but only 5 of those are equipped to work with children. There are only 6 pediatricians in the Dominican Republic trained to work with pediatric HIV/AIDS patients. There is however no one specially trained to work with parents/family of children with HIV/AIDS, including teaching caregivers how to explain HIV/AIDS to the children living with the illness. Some children are never told their HIV status, with many families instead, opting to tell the children instead that they have Leukemia or Cancer, a trend that is dangerous as children enter their teen years and begin to explore their sexuality.

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