Indian woman killed by in-laws over HIV/AIDS

Reuters:

A sick woman in eastern India was beaten to death by her in-laws because they suspected she had AIDS and feared she would infect the rest of the family, a newspaper said today.

Sabita Behera, a 30-year-old widow from a village in Puri district in Orissa state, was suffering from a fever for several days which her in-laws believed was due to the deadly virus, the Asian Age reported.

There was no test conducted to determine the cause of her illness, the newspaper said.

The woman's husband died three years ago of a liver-related disease which his family believed was also linked to AIDS, the daily said.

Fearing that the rest of the family would contract the disease, her in-laws killed her late on Saturday, the newspaper quoted police officer G.S. Nanda as saying. Two members of the husband's family have been detained.

AIDS activists say a lack of awareness and widespread stigma and discrimination has contributed to paranoia about the virus and also forced thousands of patients to hide their infection and shy away from social life.

According to the United Nations, an estimated 5.7 million Indians are living with HIV/AIDS, the world's largest caseload.

Nearly half of Indian women have not heard of AIDS