AIDS Care Watch

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

India ticking with AIDS time bomb

By, The Times of India, April 23, 2007

KANPUR: Most of Mumbai bar girls, 95 per cent of them being from UP alone, were found to be infected with HIV. Summers are particularly conducive for spreading the scourge, as large number of migrant workers from UP and Bihar, working in the megapolis, come home and infect their spouses, according to Dr IPS Gilada.

HIV surfaces more in religious places than state capitals. After visiting temples, people believe that freed of their sins, they can resort to illicit sex. Surprisingly, temple town Tirupati has more HIV infected than a cosmopolitan Hyderabad. Likewise Varanasi has more people living with HIV / AIDS, than other cities. If the trend persists, then in the next 10 years, India would have the maximum number of HIV / AIDS cases, worldwide.

Dr Gilada, Mumbai based doctor, presented these chilling facts while delivering a guest lecture on `HIV-AIDS, what should we do,' here on Sunday, during GSVM Medical College golden jubilee celebrations. HIV is also transmitted with organ transplantation, breast milk, added Dr Gilada.

According to data, women constitute 40 per cent of HIV afflicted in India, 90 per cent of whom are monogamous. Now medicines are available that lowers the risk of transfer of HIV from infected mother to child, he added.

However, successful anti-aids vaccine would not be available until five years. Therefore Dr Gilada warned that taking precautions was the only way to protect oneself from HIV. Some vaccines are available that can prolong life of HIV / AIDS afflicted by 10 or 12 years, Dr Gilada added.

He also advised parents to tell children that they should resist those who touch their genitals or lure them with chocolates or take them to isolated spots. "In the era of cable TV and `choli' movies, ads about alcohol and sex, disco clubs, it is important to prepare the youth to face the world," remarked Gilada.

“Ab nahi aids khatarnak bimari- janch karane me hai samajhdari” , quipped Gilada. He advised people to go in for test after having unsafe sex or suspecting infection. "The test can confirm HIV presence between three weeks and three months," added Giladi.

Dr Brijendra Nigam, demanded an anti retrial therapy (ART) centre for the city as HIV / AIDS graph is going up drastically, on the lines of those existing in Lucknow and Varanasi.


Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India_ticking_with_AIDS_time_bomb/articleshow/1940343.cms

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