M A I N   N E W S

Japanese PM's wife visits HIV +ve kids

Akie, wife of Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, carries a child suffering from AIDS at a hospital in New Delhi on Wednesday. — Reuters photo

New Delhi, August 22
A group of HIV-positive children in a hospital here had a special visitor today -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife Akie, who spent some time with them, hugging them and enquiring about their health.

After five-month-old Suresh got a warm hug from Akie, he refused to go back to his mother when she called him.

The former FM radio disk jockey spent time with the children being treated at Kalawati Saran Hospital, picking them up and playing with them.

The other children -- Prabhat, Sameer and Piyush -- got individual attention from the charming Akie, who asked doctors present about the rate of HIV infection in India and the how these children were infected.

"She asked about the rate of HIV infection among children in the country and about the children present here and their parents," said Jagdish, the professor of paediatrics in the state-run hospital.

Akie also visited the hospital's intensive care unit (ICU). The hospital specialises in treating HIV-positive children.

The Japanese government has helped build the hospital's emergency ICU and contributed ambulances and other services to it. — PTI