The Hindu : Healthy changes in State's AIDS scene

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 02, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

Healthy changes in State's AIDS scene

By R. Madhavan Nair

KOZHIKODE DEC. 1. Faint but clearly positive signs of changes have finally started appearing in the State's AIDS scene. Especially, in the public attitude to the patients.

At least in a few places, because of increased awareness about the disease, there is a marked change in public attitude to HIV positive patients.

There are at least a few recent cases indicating that the dread and fear which once characterised public response to AIDS victims are slowing giving way to care and sympathy. But there is no room for complacency.

On an average three HIV positive cases are detected every week at the blood bank of the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital. But doctors who have been monitoring the spread of the scourge ever since the first case was detected in the country in Chennai in 1986 say its severity has declined. And mortality due to AIDS is also less, largely because of availability of medicines.

Says K.P. Ramamoorthy, former Professor of Medicine, Kozhikode Medical College, who has been treating AIDS patients for more than one decade, ``the disease profile is changing, its severity has lessened and the number of HIV positive patients getting full-blown AIDS also appears to have declined. Though no cure is available yet, the life span of patients has also increased.''

But there is no evidence to prove that the incidence of the disease has declined. Three major diagnostic centres in the city had conflicting reports about the prevalence of the disease. At the Premier Diagnostic Centre, the number of HIV positive cases detected this year was more, compared to last year. At `Aswini', the records showed a declining trend. At the medical college blood bank, the records indicate that there has been no marked increased in the incidence of the disease.

Dr. Ramamoorthy says the medical college blood bank picture is the most likely state of AIDS -- its spread has neither increased nor declined, compared to previous years. The increasing trend shown in one diagnostic centre could be on account of the large number of tests conducted there for confirming the results obtained from other diagnostic labs.

At the blood bank, three HIV positive cases are detected every week on an average. The number of HIV positive women has gone up, the source of the infection being their husbands, but there is good response to the appeal for prospective bridegrooms to get tested for HIV before their marriage.

Gone are the days when the disease was found only among those who visited Mumbai and other big cities. Quite a few HIV positive patients, under treatment of city doctors, had never gone out of Kozhikode, confirming suspicions that sources of AIDS infections are aplenty locally.

However, the survival rate of HIV positive patients is clearly on the rise, mainly because of ready availability of medicines. There are doctors who believe the increased survival rate could also be due to the virus weakening, after undergoing mutation. But the medicines continue to be expensive and cost the patients Rs. 150 to Rs. 200 a day. The NGOs engaged in anti-AIDS campaigns have undoubtedly contributed to the increased awareness about the disease even though complaints are rife about the way they spend their funds. While Government funds released for anti-AIDS campaigns are audited, funds obtained from foreign sources are not. This has led to a strong demand that funds obtained through foreign agencies also be channelled through the Government.

Support for the demand for amending rules which insist on maintaining secrecy of the identity of persons diagnosed to be HIV positive is strengthening. Revealing identity of patients is now considered an effective way to check the spread of the disease. Many diagnosed to be HIV positive now disappear and remain potential sources of infection.

Social activists have demanded greater involvement of the Government in rehabilitation measures for the AIDS victims, since their lot is pathetic. These centres are few and the patients spend their last days in isolation, disowned by their relatives.

In Kozhikode, for example, the TB ward of the Government District Hospital near Beach could be made into a ward for AIDS patients. But the requests made for that purpose have fallen on deaf ears.

The Indian Youth Association (IYA), through its programme, `Partnership in sexual health', has been organising special awareness campaigns among the city's large population of male sex workers (MSM) who, according to the IYA secretary, M.C. Vinod Kumar, are as much a source of AIDS as the female commercial sex workers (CSW) of the city.

A recent welcome development in the battle against AIDS is the active involvement of HIV positive patients in the campaign. C. Suresh, HIV positive for nearly one decade, has been active as a counsellor at the IYA's programmes. The experience of 30-year-old Suresh is a welcome indicator of a healthy change in public attitude brought about by increased awareness about the disease. AIDS educators hope the winds of such an attitudinal change in public behaviour to the patients would soon sweep across the State.

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