In poll aid, Sushma recalls HIV-hit Bellary

It is election time and the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Sushma Swaraj, is returning to her constituency of Bellary in Karna...

It is election time and the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Sushma Swaraj, is returning to her constituency of Bellary in Karnataka. Starting from May 1, Sushma is taking up a pilot project for checking HIV/AIDS transmission and also arresting its spread.

The objective is that the area shouldn’t report any new cases after 2007 and the 30,000 people with HIV/AIDS should be able to lead a healthy life. If the project is a success, it will be implemented throughout the country.

The area is counted among the high prevalence districts in the country, with about three per cent of the population affected by the disease — as compared to 0.8 per cent in the country. The rest of the state has a much lower prevalence at 1.7 per cent.

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‘‘This programme will be the first of its kind where all the health machinery would be integrated and HIV/AIDS would be looked at in a holistic manner,’’ said National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) project director Meenakshi Dutta Ghosh.

NACO has formed a district AIDS control society headed by the Deputy Commissioner, with members from the TB control programme, mother and child care, HIV/AIDS and members from primary and secondary healthcare. The proposed budget is Rs 15 crore. For the initial six months, NACO will provide funding while the Gates Foundation will help later.

The project is divided into four components.

	NACO factfile

			• HIV prevalence is 18 pc among persons attending the STD clinics. • Less than 50 per cent population has knowledge about the disease. • Approximately 27 per cent of women reported symptoms of STD. • Twenty-two per cent married women reported that their husbands had at least one extra-marital sexual partner. Story continues below this ad • The district has only three STD clinic and a bloodbank under NACO. • The prevention of parent to child services available only in the district hospital. —ENS

• The first activity will be rapid social mapping and situation assessment. Mapping locations where new sexual partnerships are formed. It would also include assessment of high risk male population, magnitude of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases in the population and the need for a programme.

• Integrated Communication: This will include media campaigns, youth education programmes in schools and colleges and special outreach programme through NGOs. About 3,000 people are being trained to achieve the goal.

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• Focussed prevention and community outreach programmes, including door to door campaigns, would also be conducted. Clinics would be based in places with large population of high risk community. Prevention activities for the sex workers would be according to their place of functioning. Whether they are based in home/hotel/highway and public places.

• Condom Marketing would be promoted with all villages with a population of at least 2,000 would have a service outlet.

• Nine hospitals would provide help for prevention of mother to child transmission of the disease. Bellary has just one hospital involved in the activity. All doctors of private and public hospitals would be trained for detection and diagnosis of the disease.

In Bihar’s Kishanganj, only 2 ‘non-citizens’ flagged, they too make it to final SIR roll

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Kishanganj, the only Bihar district bordering West Bengal and Nepal, had minimal objections during the Election Commission's revision. Both objections were rejected and those individuals were included in the final electoral roll. Most deletion forms cited reasons like "permanently shifted" and "already enrolled". BJP raised infiltration concerns, but the Congress MP from Kishanganj dismissed them.

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