Nowhere to go ...
This infant is aged 14 months. She -suffers from the killer disease, A.I.D.S. (acquired immune deficiency syndrome). Her mother is dead and her father has abandoned her. She has perhaps no more than three years to live. The Florida Department of Health has refused to continue paying the SUS 437 ($655) a day for her hospital care.
Officials at a Miami hospital are anxiously seeking a foster home for her.
The baby’s mother, a 33-year-old Haitian immigrant, died of A.I.D.S. three weeks ago.
A.I.D.S. attacks the body’s defence mechanisms and progressively weakens it until normally minor, infections become fatal. Medical research so far has identi-
fied most of the victims as homosexual men, drug addicts, and Haitians. Doctors said that the baby had caught the disease before or during birth through contact with her mother’s contaminated blood. About 20 foster homes have refused to accept the baby, who is not sick enough to remain in the hospital
where her place is needed for sicker children. The hospital’s social welfare assistant said that refusals to take the baby stemmed from fear — despite doctors’ assurances to the contrary — that A.I.D.S. could be caught by simple contact. “And the little girl’s smile can’t calm those fears,” the assistant said.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19831110.2.74.4
Bibliographic details
Press, 10 November 1983, Page 8
Word Count
209Nowhere to go ... Press, 10 November 1983, Page 8
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.
Log in