The Hindu : 'Political commitment needed to fight AIDS'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 15, 2002

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National

'Political commitment needed to fight AIDS'

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI NOV. 14 . The special representative of the Secretary-General for HIV/AIDS in Asia, Nafis Sadik, today said India's disagreement with international agencies and the United Nations on the prevalence of HIV cases in the country should not be made into a controversy. "Without taking sides, what India is saying is that the database and surveillance figures of 4 million HIV cases in the country are at best estimates and at worse actually guesstimates and for the outside world to project into the future as though India was doing nothing, was wrong. Why should the external world use scare tactics and do these projections when India is quite capable of dealing with it, is what India is saying.''

Dr. Sadik, who is here to attend the 50th anniversary of the U.K.-based International Planned Parenthood Foundation, has sought an appointment with the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, to discuss the issue. She is looking for the strong political commitment that was there from the Government for population stabilisation.

"The political leaders reflect the population. They think sexuality, condoms and HIV \AIDS which are so related to sexual behaviour and sexuality are not subjects that should be discussed publicly and they are very uncomfortable discussing them. But even in India there are people who are willing to discuss it.''

Asked if an answer to this could be having specialised hospitals and specialised wards, Dr. Sadik's reply was an emphatic "no.'' If you start to set up separate wards, you would strengthen the stigma attached, as in leprosy. What needs to be done practically is to teach health workers how to take precautions because you don't know who is infected.

"The answer is you must have more application of standard procedure for protection and sterilisation for the health workers. You have to use gloves, discard needles safely, anything that lets out blood has to be discarded and if you get pricked or cut yourself you have to take anti-retroviral to protect yourself. All precautions have to be instituted. It is a false sense of security to have separate wards. You don't get AIDS from touching. You get them by sexual intercourse the most, and drug injection needles and so on.''

Asked what she made of the Microsoft Chief, Bill Gates' grant of $ 100 millions to India for HIV prevention, Dr. Sadik said he was committed to doing more in health and HIV/AIDS. He is very much interested in India, has invested a lot and has a particular liking for India because of the technology industry in India.

Dr. Sadik believes that if you can deal with AIDS in the health system you can only do so by strengthening the system.

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