Patna: AIDS patients need care, love: Minister

[Guest guest]

AIDS patients need care, love: Minister

Debasish Chatterjee. Saturday, June 10, 2006 01:57:03 am TIMES NEWS NETWORK

PATNA: Agreeing to the fact that India today has the highest number of AIDS and

HIV positive patients, state urban development minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey on

Friday urged the society not to close doors on such people.

Addressing doctors at the concluding ceremony of Module VI HIV-AIDS training

programme organised by Regional AIDS Training Centre and Network in India

(RATNEI) here, the minister said that factors like migration of workers, state’s

geographical location along the Indo-Nepal border, poverty and illiteracy make

Bihar a high risk AIDS zone.

The minister said that it is the responsibility of doctors, para-medical staff

and NGOs to make people, especially those hailing from the rural areas of the

state, aware of AIDS. It is an uphill task and the government alone will not be

able to achieve the desired results, he added.

Through its various employment schemes like Swarojgar Yojana and Employment

Guarantee Scheme, the state government is making sincere efforts to stop

migration of workers, which, in the long run, will help check the spread of the

dreaded AIDS virus, he said.

Underlining the importance of safe sex, the minister urged the society to be

sympathetic towards AIDS patients and advised doctors to provide them with

all-necessary clinical care and love.

Elaborating the aim of the five-day training programme, RATNEI coordinator and

US representative of International Health Organisation (IHO) C Kraft

told TOI that there was a need to remove the stigma and discrimination against

AIDS and HIV patients.

Kraft said it was a capacity-building programme intended to create awareness

among the common people through doctors. Replying to a query, she said

south-east Asia, especially India, has all the elements of making it to a high

risk zone and that’s why IHO had launched its AIDS flagship project here.

Underlining the fact that prevention alone can check the spread of AIDS, Kraft

said scientists are now coming up with drugs to cure the disease but they are

still in a nascent stage. That apart, the cost often puts them beyond the common

man's reach, she added.

Medical director of RATNEI Dr Diwakar Tejaswi said around 55 doctors from

different parts of the country and neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bangladesh

and Sri Lanka took part in the programme.

He said doctors were informed about the latest available medicines for AIDS

patients and also offered tips on how to help patients lead a normal life.

_______________

Diwakar Tejaswi

e-mail:<diwakartejaswi@...>