Tamil Nadu: Valuable lessons learnt in fighting AIDS

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Tamil Nadu - Chennai Valuable lessons learnt in fighting AIDS

Ramya Kannan

A team from Kyrgyzstan gains firsthand information, visiting parts of State

TO KNOW ABOUT EPIDEMIC: A team of healthcare and education professionals from Kyrgyzstan with Supriya Sahu (second from left), Project Director, Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society, and Devashish Dutta of UNICEF, in Chennai. — Photo: S. R. Raghunathan

CHENNAI: A team of healthcare and education professionals from the Central Asian Republic of Kyrgyzstan was in parts of Tamil Nadu this past week to study the way the State has handled the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The seven-member team, led by Isakova Ainagul, head, co-ordination and evaluation unit for HIV, Prime Minister's Office, Kyrgyz Republic, had such a hectic schedule that they hardly had time for lunch: they just had enough time for breakfast and dinner as their days were crammed with visits to several project sites to get a firsthand information about the HIV intervention. "Tamil Nadu is said to have among the best practices in the world in the HIV sector. We have access to online documentation, but it is a different thing to come here and see what is being done," Dr. Ainagul said. Tamil Nadu obviously came off sounding good, with the delegates using the superlatives to describe their experience just before they left home. "Our trip has been extremely informative," said Anara Salamatova, Programme Officer, UNAIDS in Kyrgyzstan. It was at the recommendation of the former UNICEF State Representative in Chennai Tim Schaffter, now in Kyrgyzstan, that the team visited the State. The delegates visited several projects being run by the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society, non-governmental organisations and community groups in Chennai, Tambaram, Villupuram and Tindivanam, stopping by in Puducherry for a day. With Arumbu Subramanian, their translator, the Kyrgyz said they managed very well with a strange language in a strange land. While the number of positive people, at 970, was not alarming, the fact that the prevalence had increased 59 times in the last five years was worrying, Dr. Ainagul said. Again, one of the key lessons they would take home was co-ordination, said Kutukeyev Toktogazy who heads the Kyrgyz Ministry of Health. "We were impressed by the way Tamil Nadu has done it: involving a number of stakeholders, distributing the responsibilities, co-ordinating and monitoring their work." "We have a plan now and we hope to implement it," he said, "on a large scale at home." With the Prime Minister's Office keen on tackling the epidemic even as it threatens to loom large and with a little help from India, they hope their country will successfully handle the epidemic.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/12/stories/2006111201840500.htm