H.I.V. Patients in Yemen Face Hospital Evictions

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/04/health/hiv-patients-in-yemen-face-hospital-evictions.html

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Patients infected with H.I.V. are being ordered out of hospitals in Yemen, even when they are in dire need of care, a human rights group says.

Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit advocacy group, described a woman in labor and in need of a cesarean section being turned away from a private hospital. And it said a woman suffering from seizures was ordered out of a large public hospital by a doctor shouting in front of everyone in the emergency room that she had H.I.V.

In the second case, the group said, the patient’s husband was detained by hospital staff and threatened with prosecution on charges of concealing his wife’s infection.

On Oct. 16, the organization wrote a letter to the Yemeni health minister, detailing the acts and calling them illegal. A 2009 Yemeni law mandates free health services to those with H.I.V. and criminalizes discrimination against them by health workers, Human Rights Watch said.

By Nov. 3, the group had received no reply, said Belkis Wille, its Yemen and Kuwait researcher.

H.I.V. rates in Middle Eastern countries are relatively low; only about 6,000 Yemenis are thought to be infected, so few doctors are familiar with treating infected patients and many are afraid.

But a doctor who does treat H.I.V. patients at a major state hospital in Sanaa, the capital, said staff members were trained to deal with infected patients and had protective equipment, so the reluctance was “pure discrimination.”

Patients also told Human Rights Watch that when they could get care at private clinics, they were charged double or more the normal rates because the clinics knew that public hospitals would not treat them.