NEW DELHI: The National AIDS Control Programme (NACP)-III, to be launched early next year, will focus on the rural areas where the incidence of HIV infections has touched 59 per cent as against 41 per cent in the urban areas. The Government also intends to enhance the budgetary allocation for anti-AIDS programmes and strengthen the institutional mechanism for better implementation at the Central, State and district levels.

"We have been working on the new NACP-III for the past six months to make it more effective because I personally am not satisfied with the NACP-I and NACP-II," Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told reporters here on the eve of the World AIDS Day.

He said a lot of planning with global partners and stakeholders, including the corporates, had gone into the third phase of the NACP.

To give an impetus to the ongoing AIDS awareness campaigns, the National Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, chaired by the Prime Minister will meet in December where all 30 Ministries (part of the Council) would be asked to earmark funds for the purpose.

The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry will seek additional funds in the coming Budget to ensure that the total allocation from all sectors crosses the Rs. 1 billion-mark, the Minister said. Union Human Resource Development Ministry has already put aside Rs. 64 crores. Other Ministries, particularly Tourism, will be asked to participate more aggressively in the campaign.

Admitting that the Government was running behind schedule in covering one lakh people under Anti-Retroviral

Therapy, he said the issues of procurement of drugs and training of doctors had been sorted out and the coverage would increase in the next six months. At present only 15,000 people are being treated free of cost in 40 hospitals against the target of 100 hospitals.

Japanese encephalitis

State Governments have been advised to ensure timely availability of medicines, equipment and accessories and enough trained medical and paramedical personnel in Japanese encephalitis-endemic districts.

Replying to a calling attention motion in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Dr. Ramadoss said the strategy for control included strengthening surveillance activities, integrated vector control and capacity building.

He said as many as 1,539 children had died of the disease up to November 17 and 6,314 people had been taken ill in nine States. The worst-affected was Uttar Pradesh from where 1,387 deaths and 5,842 cases were reported this year.

Ruling out vaccine as a control measure to check outbreak of the epidemic, he said India would need 75 lakh vials to prevent the disease and the capacity to produce the vaccine at present was only 5 lakh vials. No country in the world had the capacity to produce so much vaccine.

A vaccine is being manufactured in limited quantities at the Central Research Institute in Kasauli and supplied directly to the States, the Minister said. The Centre was strengthening the Institute to augment the capacity for manufacturing the vaccine, he said.

Initiating a motion on the spread of encephalitis and the steps taken to check it, Yogi Adityanath of the Bharatiya Janata Party said the Centre was not making any serious efforts to contain the disease that had claimed thousands of lives.

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