Bihar: Recommended the suspension of 32 doctors. Failure of AIDS prevention

July 19, 2001

Bihar amnesiac over AIDS awareness drive, says report-The Indian Express,

New Delhi, 19 July 2001

PATNA, JULY 18 2001:Underscoring the Bihar government's a pathetic attitude

towards tackling the AIDS menace, a review report of the State AIDS Control

Society has recommended the suspension of 32 doctors for neglecting the

implementation of AIDS awareness programme and detecting HIV positive people.

Primarily dependent on NGOs the society itself has been the victim of the

administration's apathy. According to the report, out of the 33 districts

in Bihar, publicity campaigns highlighting the danger of AIDS have been

carried out in 5 districts. Nothing has been done in the districts with

large number of migrant laborers who are more susceptible to the disease.

In most cases, the health officers had merely put up the posters outside

the health centers whereas the order clearly mentioned that posters should

be put up in residential areas.

Usually the doctors are supposed to be present in the afternoons at the

health camps organized by the society for counseling and medical check up

of the patients. But the report reveals that doctors are usually not

available in the afternoon. In some cases, the camps fold up before

time by noon.

According to the report, Madhepura is the only district where the health

officials have taken their tasks seriously and implemented all the

publicity campaign measures fully. The latest audit scrutiny by the

accountant general records a staggering shortfall in meeting the targets.

Earlier the task of implementing the National AIDS Control Programme lay

with the State AIDS Control Cell. After seven years, in July 1998, the

task was transfers to the society. The audit report also mentions that

while the cell had received a sum of Rs 17 lakhs during the period 1994-95,

no cash book or other relevant materials were available when the audit

was conducted. Sources in the society say that it has to depend on the

government health officials and NGOs for implementation of the project

as the society is still to build up its own infrastructure.

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