Action plan needed to combat aids

SURAT, Dec 2: The New Civil Hospital in the city on an average received two cases of HIV positive patients every week. This was stated by...

SURAT, Dec 2: The New Civil Hospital in the city on an average received two cases of HIV positive patients every week. This was stated by doctors of the hospital at a workshop on AIDS, organised at Gandhi Smruti Bhawan to co-incide with World AIDS Day on Tuesday.

Even as doctors, experts and people working in this field recalled their experiences and regretted the inability to find a vaccine to counter the disease, they agreed that cases of both HIV-affected patients and full blown AIDS were grossly under-reported. Speaking at the workshop, District Collector R M Shah 8212; who is also chairman of the Surat District Aids Control Society 8212; stated that the very fact that the reported cases were on the rise every year meant that whatever being done at the moment was inadequate. 8220;Keeping this fact in mind, we have to formulate an action plan. And the sooner we evolve it, the better,8221; he said, adding that education about the dreaded disease too was not satisfactory.

Presenting figures and data on the disease, Dr J K Kosambiya of the Preventive and Social Medicine department PSM, New Civil hospital, felt that what was being reported was just the tip of the iceberg8217;. 8220;What is being reported is very less and the real problem will emerge after a few years,8221; the doctor said.

He admitted that AIDS, which was detected in India as late as 1986, was largely conceived as a western occurrence and was not being given due importance as far as research and development of medicines were concerned. He said that of the registered 6607 AIDS cases in the country so far, 258 were in Gujarat.

Educating the audience on the methods by which AIDS spread, speakers said that one major factor that contributed to under-reporting of cases was the stigma attached to it.8220;Many contracted the disease for no fault of theirs but were shunned by the society,8221; Dr Shrivastav of the PSM department and another speaker said, referring to those who may have contracted HIV genetically or through blood transfusion.

The District AIDS Control Society, formed in 1992, along with similar societies in all districts has been co-ordinating with voluntary organisations and the New Civil Hospital to update AIDS figures in the district, conduct studies at the district-level and carry out an overall education programme on the disease.