USD 33mn funding to fight AIDS for INC

Bangalore, Feb 17: The Indian Nursing Council (INC) will recieve 33 million US dollar from a Global Fund to train one lakh nurses in the treatment of HIV/AIDS patients in the country.

Mr T Dileep Kumar, President of INC and Nursing Advisor, GOI, on the sidelines of a national conference on 'Theory and Application in Nursing Practice,' said yesterday the Geneva-based Global Fund to fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis (GFAMT) had come forward to fund the programme.

Fifty-five nursing institutions were identified for the purpose and one lakh nurses would be given specialised training in treating people with HIV/AIDS, apart from Malaria and TB.

''Counselling is very important in treating HIV positives and we want to create a big contingent of nurses. We want these health workers to master the treatment of Anti-Retroviral Therapy, commonly used to treat HIV patients. We plan to train at least 15,000 nurses every year for the next five years under the programme.'' INC had begun work on launching the first National Institute of Nursing at Thambaram near Chennai in Tamil Nadu specialising in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. It would be a self-sustaining institute which would reserve 25 per cent of seats to foreign students that would take care of the costs of running the institute.

''South Africa, which has one of the highest incidence of AIDS in the world, is sending a large number of students to the US for training in the treatment of AIDS. We can invite students from foreign countries,'' he added.

UNI