PATHBREAKING: Nagaratna, a HIV positive woman, who was the guest at the inauguration of a district-level seminar on HIV/AIDS organised to mark World AIDS Day in Belgaum on Thursday. The president of IMA, Belgaum, C.N. Tungashetty (left), the chief ex ecutive officer of the zilla panchayat, M.E. Shivlingmurthy, and the District Health and Family Welfare Officer, P.A. Pattanshetty, are seen.

Belgaum: Emotions ran high at least for a while when a HIV positive woman, Nagaratna, arrived as the guest at a seminar organised to mark World AIDS Day by the Zilla Panchayat, the District Health and Family Welfare Department and supported by several voluntary organisations here on Thursday.

Nagaratna joined the chief guests in lighting the lamp to mark the inauguration of the district-level seminar held along with the World AIDS Day with the participants greeting the gesture with a loud applause. This was to tell the world that HIV infected patients need to be treated with the same care and concern as any other individual in society.

Those who supported the event included the Belgaum branch of Indian Medical Association, NCC unit of Belgaum, Scouts and Guides Organisation, Indian Red Cross Society, Family Planning Association of India, Hindalco Industries Limited, Innerwheel Club of Belgaum, Department of Information and voluntary organisations such as BIRDS and SHAKTI.

Sex education

M.E. Shivlingmurthy, Chief Executive Officer, Zilla Panchayat, who inaugurated the seminar, stressed the need for introducing sex education in schools which could go a long way in preventing the youth from falling victim to the dreaded disease.

But the need of the hour is to turn anti-AIDS awareness programmes and preventive measures for safe sex into a mass campaign, more so in rural areas where the awareness level and response to sex education was not encouraging.

However, these efforts would not suffice unless individuals developed a strong moral character, he said.

High number of cases

The District Health and Family Welfare Officer, P.A. Pattanshetty, said the district was one among those where cases of HIV/AIDS was high. At least two per cent of the population in the district had the disease.

But a matter of serious concern was the growing rate of youth falling prey to the disease. Of the two per cent HIV/AIDS victims, half are youth in the age group of 15 to 24 and the rest are women. The district had 2,130 HIV positive and 870 AIDS cases between 1987 and December 2004. During the same period, 71 persons died of AIDS.

Pregnancy and AIDS

Another matter of concern is the growing number of pregnant women testing positive for HIV. The latest figure shows that 4.3 per cent of such women tested positive for HIV in government hospitals.

Those who spoke included C.N. Tugashetty, President, IMA, Belgaum branch, and S.B. Kulkarni, President, FPAI, Belgaum branch.

In the morning, cadets belonging to NCC, Scouts and Guides and schoolchildren took out a procession raising anti-HIV/AIDS slogans to create awareness among the public.

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