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Malawian Children want law to bar PLHIV from having children

  1. Posted on Tuesday 15 December 2009 - 10:16
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    The children parliament in Malawi has asked government to bar People Living with HIV (PLHIV) from having children saying they are increasing the number of children born with HIV.HIV and AIDS communication experts comes as a result of poor communication on the subject
    Speaker of the children parliament Clotilde Rebello said the last sitting of the children parliament recommended ten key child rights issues that it regards are vital in the promotion of child rights.
    She said the recommendation that people living with HIV should not be allowed to have children comes in the wake of the rising number of children born with HIV in the country.
    “A lot of children in Malawi are born with HIV that they get from their parents we therefore believe this can be controlled if people living with HIV are not allowed to have children, “she said.
    How ever a Namibian based HIV and AIDS communications expert, David Rush said this is worrying development.
    “I can understand the child parliamentarians' concerns, particularly if a lot of children have been born with HIV,” Said Rush in an emailed response.
    He said the problem had been created as People living with HIV have been reluctant to discuss with health care workers their desires to have children and how the risk of transmitting HIV to babies can be reduced.
    “Largely this problem has been created because of the attitude perceived and real of health care workers, who often made it clear that they thought People living with HIV should not have children, “he said.
    He said the child parliamentarians call showed that they are not aware that the risk of transmitting HIV to a baby can be reduced almost to nothing if People living with HIV have access to the right information and health services.
    He said in Namibia, HIV-positive women have been sterilized either forcibly of without their informed consent to prevent them having more children.
    A number of these have since women have taken the government to court about this. But this shows that the kind of action being called for by the child parliamentarians can actually happen.

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