Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

US team to offer aid for AIDS control

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD Oct. 22. A three-member US team involved in AIDS control programme, is in the City to offer technical assistance in the areas of surveillance, application of universal safety precautions and HIV positive patient care for the programme in Andhra Pradesh.

The team comprising Mark O. Loveless, Ados Velez-May and Randon S. Pope of the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors said it was not merely here to offer its expertise under the Global AIDS Technical Assistance Programme but learn from the experience of the AIDS control programme here.

"We can take back issues like the importance of sentinel surveys and antenatal mothers care, which we seem to have forgotten.'' They said they were "very impressed'' by the programmes taken up by the AP State AIDS Control Society (APSACS) and the "knowledge, dedication and commitment'', of those working in the project. The sharing of experience between APSACS and the US National Allaince would be a "long term one''.

They said apart from India (Andhra Pradesh and Bihar) the global assistance programme was now on in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Brazil, Caribbean and China. They said it was certainly a major public health concern in Andhra Pradesh, the State figuring among the top five having the largest number of HIV patients.

Responding to a question, they said translating knowledge of HIV/AIDS into behavioural change was still a challenge everywhere. It took a long time as "essentially the power lies with the individual''. They agreed it was often "uncomfortable'', to present to the people a scary scenario of a problem that affected a small section of the population. "But it is always better to talk about an uncomfortable aspect than not to''.

On the increasing number of suicides committed by HIV positive persons, they said such tendencies did exist in the US too, mainly among HIV positive gays. But they came out of it after counselling, family and community support.

K. Damayanti, Director, AP State AIDS Control Society, said the State looked forward to technical assistance in raising the level of surveillance to that of the US Centre for Disease Control. It has a sought stationing an US expert here for six months for this purpose. It also wanted help in putting to practice the universal safety precautions, prevention, counselling and testing. "What we most urgently require a system which gives good epidemiological trends in the State.''

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