HIV-positive parents kill children before suicide -- report
Agence France-Presse
First Posted 20:06:00 08/07/2008
MUMBAI -- A couple living with HIV for two years killed their three children and then committed suicide after their daughter was also diagnosed with the virus that causes AIDS, a report said Thursday.
The couple, depressed by their six-year-old daughter's recent diagnosis, allegedly fed poisoned sweets to their two boys, aged eight and 10, on Tuesday night, the Times of India reported.
The daughter survived eating the sweets so the parents then smothered her before hanging themselves, the report said.
"The couple were diagnosed with HIV two years ago and were undergoing treatment," Mumbai police official R.M. Vhatkar told the daily.
"But the suicide was triggered when the daughter too was diagnosed with the same illness."
The dead man's younger brother discovered the bodies, police said.
Stigma and discrimination against HIV-positive people are widespread in this country of 1.1 billion people, where an estimated 2.5 million people are infected with the virus, according to the United Nations.
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