Romanian teens infected with HIV 'facing persecution'

MOSCOW - Romania is consigning an entire generation of HIV-infected teenagers to a life of persecution on the margins of an unsympathetic society, according to a hard-hitting new report.

The findings are published by New-York based Human Rights Watch (HRW) and will make uncomfortable reading for Romania, a country which is due to join the EU next year.

The report details the problems endured by over 7,200 Romanian teenagers between the age of 15 and 19 who were infected with HIV between 1986 and 1991 due to government incompetence.

The teenagers are the survivors of an ill-conceived programme that resulted in more than 10,000 children at hospitals and orphanages across Romania being exposed to contaminated needles.

As children they underwent minor blood transfusions in the mistaken belief that it would boost their immunity only to become infected with HIV.

More than fifteen years later the report warns that the children are in danger of becoming a leper generation.

"Unless the authorities take urgent measures now, unchecked discrimination will push far too many of these children to the margins of society," said Clarisa Bencomo, the report's author.

Forty per cent of the teenagers have no access to education, many doctors refuse to treat them for fear of becoming infected, and prospective employers turn their noses up at them once they find out that they are HIV-positive.

Nor are the teenagers able to keep their condition quiet; social workers, government and council officials, postal workers, doctors and teachers all breach patient confidentiality and ensure that local communities are in the know.

Ms Bencomo accuses the Romanian government of neglect.

"The Romanian government has known about these children for more than 15 years, but it still doesn't have a plan for what will happen when they turn 18."

Though many of the teenagers live with their families, more than 700 of them are in orphanages or on foster care placements and face an uncertain future.

"Many children fear that they will find themselves on the streets if and when they are forced to leave institutions," the report said.

One serious obstacle to them progressing in later life is a law providing for mandatory HIV-testing for anyone wanting to become a hairdresser, a beautician, a child carer, a health professional, a cleaner or for anyone wanting to work in the food industry.

The law appears to extend to other professions too and HRW wants it abolished.

"It is too much to wish to work in a shop because everywhere I would go they would ask me to show them my medical tests," Anemona D, a 17-year old HIV-infected Bucharest teenager, told HRW.

"That is hitting below the belt. Why would I need medical tests to sell shoes?"

- INDEPENDENT