The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Call for a "war" against AIDS

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 10, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Call for a "war" against AIDS

Special Correspondent

"There are 5.2 million HIV/AIDS affected persons in the age group of 15-49 in India"

CHENNAI: There are about 5.2 million HIV/AIDS affected persons in the age group of 15-49 in India and a war must be declared against the scourge, said K. Meer Mustafa Hussain, Vice-Chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University.

Inaugurating a two-day training programme on HIV/AIDS for private medical practitioners, Dr. Hussain said two-thirds of the estimated 5.7 million affected were in six regions, including Namakkal. He stressed the need to promote blood donation, and said it was a good mode to screen people for other communicable diseases. Supriya Sahu, Project Director, Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society, said private physicians treating HIV/AIDS patients should inform the Deputy Directors about the "notifiable disease."

She urged doctors to refer patients to Government institutions where resistance protocol and second-line medicines were available free of cost. Doctors willing to open testing centres would be given rapid test kits by the TANSACS.

Though there were about 2.3 lakh HIV/AIDS affected persons in Tamil Nadu, only 1.1 lakh had come forward to test and the whereabouts of the remaining 2 lakh were not known, she said.

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