PM chalks out strategy to combat spread of AIDS

NEW DELHI, DEC 11: The urgency of the AIDS situation in the country appears to have hit home, with the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpaye...

NEW DELHI, DEC 11: The urgency of the AIDS situation in the country appears to have hit home, with the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee calling a meeting of MPs and political leaders to chalk out a strategy to combat the spread of the dreaded disease.

With the latest reports from the Health Ministry, corroborated by surveys by international agencies indicating that India will top the list of countries with the largest number of HIV/AIDS cases, the Ministry is anxious to rope in Vajpayee, giving highest priority towards the problem in this way.

The meeting, to be held in the Capital on Saturday, will focus attention on the need for a sustained campaign to spread awareness about the ways of contracting the disease which cripples the body8217;s immunity, making the patient vulnerable to all kinds of infections.

According to Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, a group of UN officials, representatives of Non-Governmental Organisations NGOs and health workers involved in AIDS rehabilitation had met the Prime Minister on Thursday, to impress upon him the need for immediate action to halt the spread of the disease.

8220;But the Prime Minister appeared convinced about the need for urgent action and committed to taking up the issue at a national level,8221; Piot said.

Piot also announced that the UNAIDS programme would give 2 million dollars to provide technical expertise and infrastructural support to state governments in India, to strengthen their AIDS control programmes.

The money from UNAIDS would also be used to fund a computerised network between the states and the Centre, said J V R Prasad, Director, National AIDS Control Organisation NACO of the Union Health Ministry.

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With AIDS cases rising spectacularly among young people between the ages of 18 and 25 years, the two-day meeting of the UNAIDS programme coordination board decided to target the HIV/AIDS prevention campaign on the youth, Piot said. To give an idea of the spread of the disease among young people, he said that over half of all new infections today are in people below 24 years, with more than 16,000 new infections being added to the numbers of global AIDS sufferers every day.