SUBODH SARMA Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Public Interest Litigation has been registered at the instance of the petitioners, namely Shri Subodh Sarma-a Consulting Engineer by profession and Smt. Sabita Goswami-a Journalist. The miserable plight of a women namely Smti Jahnabi Goswami Sharma, wife of an AIDS patient have promoted them to file this petition to espouse the cause of those who are infected or suspected to have been inflected by HIV or AIDS, and the members of their family.

(2.) Before we advert to the problems raised in the writ petition, it would be of great assistance to know before hand what is HIV, how it is spread, how to detect it and the treatment to be given. All humans, fortunately, have a natural defence system against diseases caused by foreign organisms, i.e. the immune system, consisting inter alia of the white cells, including T-helper cells, (also known as the CD 4 cells) in the blood as well as the lymphatic systems. The immune system recognises the foreign organisms, technically described as the antigen, and in order to defend the body against it manufactures what are known as antibodies, which attack and destroy the antigen. In the case of HIV disease, a virus known as Human Immuno Deficiency Virus (in short HIV) enters the human body and destroys the very immune system itself.

(3.) The vast majority of persons contracting HIV gets AIDS (Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome) which is the terminal sage of HIV infecticon. About 15 % of the patients develop Acute Seroconversion illness. At the initial stage, the symptoms are like flue and hence mostly ignored. Later, the person goes into a long asymptomatic period which can cast from 3 to 18 years. It is difficult to predict initially by clinical, biochemical or immunological methods as to who will develop AIDS. This uncertainity has a psychological stress which lowers CD 4, cell count, thereby reducing the persons' immune response. The HIV damages the immune system and secondary infections like pnenumonia, diarrhea etc. set in. The human body is unable to combat such infections and the person infected with HIV ultimately dies on account of secondary infections.