— Photo: T. Singaravelou

FOR A CAUSE: Lt. Governor Mukut Mithi (third from left) sharing a moment with Chief Minister N. Rangasamy (second from right) at a meeting of Puducherry AIDS Control Society on Tuesday.

Puducherry: Lt. Governor Mukut Mithi said that with prevention being the only key to control HIV/AIDS, there must be sustained efforts to generate awareness among the youth by providing them with correct knowledge.

Inaugurating a "Campaign against HIV/AIDS among Youth and Access to Safe Blood" organised by Puducherry AIDS Control Society (PACS) here on Tuesday, Mr. Mithi said that India with one-seventh of the World population, had around 57 lakh HIV positive cases. Of them 50 per cent were female and around 1.2 lakh were children. The Lt. Governor said, according to statistics available, there were 8,400 HIV positive cases in Puducherry and four times more than that number were vulnerable to its infection.

He said it is a Herculean task to fight the dreaded disease with cheap and effective medicines being absent. A massive grass-root movement to educate the people of the disease and its consequences was necessary. Mr. Mithi said the movement involved education and motivation through lectures and forming of core groups, involvement of educational institutions, hospitals and industry. There should be change in the social conditions in this regard. He urged the PACS to regularly conduct awareness campaigns like the present one in schools and colleges. Blood bank operators should also be trained periodically on blood safety and allied medical code.

Regular education on dangers of improper procedures of sterilisation and blood transfusion by untrained and unqualified people particularly in rural areas, where there was acute shortage of such trained medical workers. Chief Minister N. Rangasamy, who presided, said a massive awareness among the youth on the implications of the dreaded disease could be created by the teachers. He said development should not be impaired by such occurrences like HIV/AIDS.

Health Minister E. Valsaraj said the Health Department was providing free treatment to the AIDS-afflicted patients. There was also free supply of costly anti retro viral medicines. He stressed the need for eradicating all the uncalled-for stigma on affected patients. He appealed to non-governmental organisations and self-help groups to coordinate with the Government machinery to take care of the AIDS patients and their wards.

Chief Secretary Pradip Mehra, Secretary to Health T.M. Balakrishnan, the local legislator Ohm Sakthi Sekar, the Director of Health and Family Welfare Services Dilip Kumar Baliga and Project Director of PACS Gilbert Fernandez were among those who spoke.

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