LUCKNOW, July 29: It was a tragic reinforcement of the peril India faces as awareness of AIDS remains low and its testing centres even fewer. An entire family of Shikohabad is suspected to have been wiped out by the deadly virus over a period of less than a year.The last to succumb was four-and-a-half-year-old Shobhit Gupta, who died on July 21. Except for him, none of his four-member family knew for sure what plagued them.In his short life, Shobhit never knew what it was to live without a disease. Suspected to have inherited HIV from his mother, Suman Gupta, he could never even grow into a normal four-year-old.The family's woes started when Suman underwent a caesarean operation for her first delivery in 1989 in Shikohabad. Doctors in Kanpur believe she might have been infected with HIV during the blood transfusion she received in the course of the operation. Both Suman and the girl she gave birth to, Gudia, remained unwell ever since. But no one suspected AIDS could be nibbling away at the two. During this time, Suman is believed to have passed on the virus to her husband, Sushil. And then to Shobhit, who was born in 1993.Soon after the latter's birth, Suman's condition began to worsen. The four family members were also losing weight constantly. Still, no one thought of checking for AIDS. Finally, in October last year, Suman died. Gudia followed soon after in April this year.Sushil, whose condition continued to deteriorate, now started a treatment for tuberculosis with doctors in Shikohabad. When he complained of continuous fever and other disorders despite the medicines, he was referred to a doctor in Lucknow and then to Kanpur.It was Dr Prabhu Ramchandani of Kanpur who suspected Sushil may have the AIDS virus and recommended the Elisa test for confirmation. Though Sushil tested HIV-negative, Ramchandani was not convinced and asked him to take another test. Before Sushil could do that, he died in May this year.The orphaned Shobhit now came to stay with relatives in Kanpur. By this time, rumours that the family was suffering from AIDS had started floating around, and Shobhit's kin reportedly avoided him.With a test confirming that the boy was indeed HIV-positive, the remaining hope was also lost. A week back, Shobhit too died.Ramchandani has no doubt about what killed the entire family. ``Though tests were not performed on the mother and daughter,'' he told The Indian Express, ``their deaths and symptoms need no confirmation that the family was in the grip of AIDS.''And they were not the only ones. AIDS is believed to have spread its tentacles to Uttar Pradesh, with three HIV-positive cases being reported from Lucknow recently and 30 cases having so far been detected in Kanpur, according to Kanpur Medical College authorities.Confirming the figures, a senior official, requesting anonymity, said: ``We are ill-equipped to even test these cases.''
