Indo-Australian venture to counter 5.7 million HIV patients in India

Kolkata, Feb 19 (UNI) Australia-India Council (AIC) in cooperation with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has chalked up a detailed programme to arrest the growth of HIV patients in India, numbering more than 5.7 million at present.

Announcing this, AIC Deputy Director Professor Suzanne Crowe here today said that according to a rough estimate more than 72 per cent of about 7.4 million people afflicted with HIV/AIDS in the Asia- Pacific region, were from India and their number was steadily increasing in spite of a number of measures taken by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Union government.

Keeping the gravity of the situation in mind the AIC had joined hands with the CII to launch an intensive training programme for the doctors and para medics in 37 cities and towns across the country about the treatment of HIV/AIDS patients through the far less expensive CAVIDI tests, she said.

Claiming that the CAVIDI tests was as useful and successful as the commonly used tests, but was at least five times less expensive, Ms Crowe said attempts were also being made to make available such tests more easily in all corners of the country so that more and more patients could enjoy their benefits at affordable costs.

She said though no comprehensive data was available to exactly know the rate of prevalance of HIV/AIDS among various sections of people, it was believed that people from the middle stratas were mostly affected with the discase to of several reasons.

Citing the example of Thailand, where the near epidemic like situation in terms of the prevalance of HIV/AIDS had been brought under control through various measures, Ms Crowe said apart from making the use of condom as mandatory for the country's thousands of sex workers, the Thai government had introduced huge fines for any violation besides setting off round the clock public awareness programme against the killer disease.

Though such harsh measures were not possible in India because of its vast size and huge population, a small beginning could be made in some of the well known red light zones in several states to bring down the rate of infection, she said.

To another query, the AIC Deputy Chief, who had been researching on the menace in India for more than a decade, emphasised the need for a change in the mindset among the physicians as well as the neighbours of HIV patients in India.

As a result, the growth of HIV infected people in most of the major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chandigarh was to the tune of 18 to 20 per cent per annum, she said.

Among the other diseases which had been assuming alarming proportions in the Indian sub-continent, Ms Crowe said they included non- communicable diseases like cardiovasculer and cerebrovascular diseases besides the common diseases like cancer and diabetes.

If the government of India does not respond to the wake up calls, a heath disaster awaits the country, the Australian expert pointed out.

UNI