People in the village of Morab in Dharwad, India are draining the local lake, their only source of water, after a woman known to be HIV positive died in the lake.

According to the Times of India, the woman, whose body was found on 29 November, was found in the lake after taking her own life.

Authorities attempted to stop the local residents — as HIV cannot be transmitted via air or water — but they were unable to quell the people’s fears.

The lake is 36 acres and the closest source of water for people and animals alike in the village. Now people are walking 2-3km to the Malaprabha to get water. Authorities are hoping they can refill the lake soon with water from the canal.

‘This is unfortunate,’ said district health officer Dr. Rajendra Doddamani. ‘We have been telling people not to panic as HIV does not spread through water. But the people are not convinced and they have started draining out the lake.’

Most people in the village stated they did not want to drink ‘contaminated’ water.

One man, Pradeep Hanikere, said: ‘Do the officials drink bottled water if they find dirt or a speck in it? If they can’t, then how can they force us to drink water from the lake where we found the body of a woman?’

Another villager, however, said it was specifically because the woman lived with HIV. They said they would have drank the water ‘if it was the body of a normal person’.

A lack of knowledge

Dr. Glory Alexander, the founder of the Asha Foundation, which helps people living with HIV, said this stemmed from ‘sheer ignorance’ and a ‘lack of awareness’, rather than stigma.

‘When an HIV positive person dies, the virus also dies,’ she added. ‘Even if the virus comes out of the body, it cannot survive in water. There is no risk of infection spreading from the water.’

HIV is only transmitted through specific bodily fluids, and it cannot survive long nor reproduce outside a human host.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 930,000 adults and children live with HIV in India as of last year. There were also an estimated 67,000 HIV/AIDS-related deaths in the country in 2017.

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