Mumbai District AIDS Control Society installs smart kiosks with short educational videos for HIV patients

It has been observed that nearly 30 per cent of the newly diagnosed HIV patients drop out of the ART treatment regime within the first one year of their diagnosis.

In the first phase, MDACS launched 30 animated educational videos which address the various aspects of the PLHIV. (Representational)

Written by: Rupsa Chakraborty

3 min readMumbaiFeb 16, 2022 12:06 AM IST First published on: Feb 16, 2022 at 12:06 AM IST

In a first in India, the Mumbai District AIDS Control Society (MDACS) has installed smart ‘Jindagi’ kiosks with 55 educational videos on HIV at antiretroviral therapy (ART) centres in Mumbai for people living with HIV (PLHIV).

It has been observed that nearly 30 per cent of the newly diagnosed HIV patients drop out of the ART treatment regime within the first one year of their diagnosis. To address their concerns, the touch-screen based ‘Jindagi’ kiosks have been installed in 10 out of the 20 ART centres in Mumbai.

In the first phase, MDACS launched 30 animated educational videos which address the various aspects of the PLHIV. People can individually select the questions of their choices on the touchscreen of the kiosks and get their queries answered. The videos are available in both Marathi and Hindi.

Some of the questions are—‘Can I consume alcohol while being on HIV treatment?’; ‘Can HIV-infected couples have babies without contracting the infection?’; ‘Can alternative medicines cure HIV?’among others.

While in the second phase, the civic body focused on more lifestyle and non-communicable diseases, including mental health like ‘What are the signs of depression?’; ‘Anger issues among paediatric patients against parents’.

“We have gone through several drafts while framing the questions and its answers. We didn’t want to impose restrictions on the patients and make the videos more friendly. This is the first time in India that a corporation has made such videos individually,” said Dr Shrikala Acharya Additional Project Director, MDACS.

“The videos produced by NACO are 30 minutes long which fail to hook the listeners. So, we made the videos in only 30seconds—Short, chrispy and to the point,” she said.

Civic officials have observed that the patients and their relatives hesitate to ask questions in crowded ART centres. With these kiosks, they can get all their queries answered. Each of these kiosks cost Rs 60,000.

As the initiative has gained quite a popularity, other states are also planning to follow in the footsteps. MDACS is getting requests to share the animated videos all across the nation.

Inspired by the initiative, states like Kerala and Andhra Pradesh have sought these animated videos to be installed in ART centres in their state in their regional languages.

“We have already shared the videos with Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. They will translate the videos in their regional languages and install it in their ART centres. It is a matter of great pride for us that a Mumbai-based initiative is getting a nation-wide recognition,” said Dr Acharya.

In 2020, MDACS had launched a mobile app with the same name—‘Jindagi’. Anyone can download the app to watch the same videos. At the end of each video, the listeners have to solve a quiz on the subject.