Disclosure of HIV status and human rights: The duties and responsibilitiesof couples, medical professionals, family members and the state - Roundtable

This case history is about a young husband in India who became HIV positive and did not inform his wife. This man was working for a company in the cit y of Mumbai when he became ill with tuberculosis and was diagnosed with AID S. This information was not disclosed to his 21-year-old wife, who was livi ng with her parents-in-law in a rural area of South Kerala. He came home to recover and supported by his parents' wishes, wanted his wife to become pr egnant even though she had asked that they wait until he had recovered. She came to know that her husband had AIDS and the dangers it posed only when she was eight months pregnant and he was seriously ill. Her husband died so me three months after the baby was born and she went back to her parents' h ouse, where she and the baby were living at the mercy of others. The contri butors to this multi-authored Roundtable discuss the various human rights i ssues and the duties and responsibilities involved - not only of spouses an d partners to each other but also of medical professionals, family members and the state - which arise from such a case.