HIV hysteria

Stuff reports:

Angela said her grandson contracted HIV from his mother during birth. The mother decided to tell the centre he had the virus on April 24, and two days later the centre told her “we don’t want him here”.

Robinson said he has been dealing with the centre for a couple of weeks, working to help them understand that the boy posed no risk to other children.

He met with the centre on Friday with the boy’s paediatrician, but said it was a “really dysfunctional meeting”.

“They didn’t want to listen to any of the facts. They completely dismissed the doctor like he had nothing to add to the conversation,” Robinson said.

“They have been wilfully ignorant to the facts and then allowed hysteria to occur.”

It is hysteria. There has never been a case of social transmission through normal childhood activity.

“This is a community that has started to get into a hysterical witch hunt and is refusing to listen to the facts about HIV and is really persecuting this boy and his family.”

Robinson said the boy’s brothers, who are at primary school, were also being discriminated against, even though they don’t have the virus.

About 20 parents went to the school, demanding the brothers be removed, he said.

“The principal had to send them home for fear of their safety, not because he agreed with the parents.”

And that is an even lower level of sanity.

I thought this nonsense was 20 years in the past. I recall how proud I was of New Zealanders when Eve van Grafhorst moved to New Zealand because of hysteria in Australia over the fact she was HIV+.

The Director of Child Health at Auckland District Health Board, Dr Richard Aickin, said HIV could not be transmitted through social contact, sharing utensils, kissing, hugging or sharing baths.

“If another child has an open wound or cuts themselves simultaneously with another and is exposed to infected blood, then any blood from the infected child would have to firstly, contain viral DNA. This is unlikely in a child with an undetectable viral load,” he said.

“Secondly, the virus would have to be able to survive the journey from the infected child to the non-infected child and thirdly, somehow manage to enter the non-infected child’s blood stream.

“There has been no documented case of transmission of HIV from one child to another in a day care or school setting. This we believe, supports our opinion that the transmission risk is miniscule,” Aickin said.

I am confident those hysterical parents in Whangarei are not representative of most New Zealand parents.