Andhra Pradesh - Tirupati   

APSACS on vigorous drive to check HIV/AIDS

— Photo: K.V. Poornachandra Kumar

Planning a strategy: APSACS Project Director R.V. Chandravadan addressing doctors from five districts at a workshop in Tirupati on Thursday.

TIRUPATI: ‘Unda Mee Daggara?’ (Do you have it..?) is the question that the government seeks to pose to the scores of sex workers and their male clients in the State.

Aiming promotion of condom use to prevent HIV/AIDS spread, the Andhra Pradesh State AIDS Control Society (APSACS) has come out with the above tagline to remind the persons in question on the need to possess the ‘protective guard’ before proceeding ahead. It is proposed to sell 81 lakh condoms at over 51,000 outlets in the State, which include fancy stores, petrol filling stations, supermarkets, telephone booths and even pan kiosks.

Addressing medical professionals drawn from the five districts of Chittoor, Mahabubnagar, Khammam, Kadapa and Anantapur at a two-day workshop on ‘Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) – Treatment’ here on Thursday, APSACS project director R.V. Chandravadan pointed out that sale of condoms through vending machines was yielding better results, with the elimination of scope for identity, and hence repression and stigmatisation. He referred to the roping in of film actor couple Dr. Rajasekhar and Jeevitha as brand ambassadors for condom promotion as a progressive step in driving the message home. Regretting the rise in the number of drug abusers and homosexuals in the State, he cited a May 2008 survey in which 268 of the 6,704 blood samples reported positive.

He announced that drugs worth Rs.1 crore would be allocated for the sector and invited voluntary organisations in providing counselling to the victims and the stigmatised lot. APSACS deputy director D. John Babu and others took part.

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