Baby death leads to review

A case review has been ordered into the death of a seriously malnourished baby boy in London despite the involvement of nine different health professionals. The boy was found dead in a flat in March. Two days later, his mother, who was HIV positive, died in hospital.

The baby was not considered to be at risk by social services. At least some of the problem seems to be that the Eritrean mother refused an interpreter in January because she was afraid that members of her own community might find out about her HIV status.

"It is something we have to tackle regularly," Lisa Power, policy officer of the Terence Higgins Trust said. "People absolutely fear that if anybody from their own community knows, that information will go around and they will be excluded from that community."