Three siblings, for no fault of theirs, are staring death. They have been infected by the dreaded HIV AIDS virus and it was transmitted to them by their own parents, who died of AIDS over the past two-and-a-half years. The only hope for this family of four children, from Fategarh village of Jaisalmer district, is that one of the kids has been declared free from the virus. The tragic fact of the kids being affected by the virus came to light when an NGO, Jaisalmer Samagra Gramin Swasthya Samiti (JSGSS), conducted medical check ups in a number of villages of the district recently. Director of JSGSS, Chandra Prakash Vyas, said, of the four children - Mohan (15), Khakhu (13), Jeetu (12) and Kailash (10) - Jeetu and Kailash are confirmed AIDS patients, while their sister Khakhu is suspected to be carrying the virus. The only one who has been cleared of the virus is the eldest of the lot, Mohan. Vyas said that truck driver Kesar Singh Rajpurohit (40), father of the kids, often used to travel to Gujarat, Maharashtra and Banglore and picked up the virus from his illicit relationships. Very soon he infected his wife too. She, in turn, passed it on to the kids. The plight of the kids is simply unfortunate. Kailash has boils all over his body. They must have been itching, but he was consciously keeping his fingers away from them. He is unaware as to what he is suffering from. He only says that he wants to go to school, but is often sick. His sister Khakhu too says that she is unaware as to what her brothers are suffering from: "Villagers don't help us, they look at us with scorn," she said. She is again completely ignorant that she too is under the scanner for the dreaded virus. She also added that all relatives had forgotten about them after their parents' death, but one of them comes visiting them once in a blue moon. Unlike Kailash and Khakhu, their younger brother Jeetu seemed to be sure as to what he was suffering from: "Kailash and I are suffering from cancer, we often miss classes because of fever," he said. Khakhu cooks for her brothers and was till recently working on drought relief sites. The family stays in a hut on the outskirts of the village and they do not have immediate neighbours. A village social worker, Uttam Singh, has been taking a lot of interest in these kids. He was the one who took them for a medical check up initially and drew the attention of the district administration towards their plight. On the attitude of villagers towards the kids, Uttam Singh contradicts the children and says, "villagers are extending all possible assistance to these children and are completely impartial." The district administration has decided to provide medical assistance to these children under the Mukhya Mantri Jeevan Raksha project. District collector Hemant Gera said that instructions have been given to extend medical and all other possible assistance to these children. [Source: Hindustan times]