Anbumani Ramadoss, Minister of Health and Family Welfare stressed the urgency to focus on health and education. This is extremely crucial in a country where nearly 5.2 million people are suffering with HIV/AIDS, and also putting a further 600 million youth under risk.
It must be noted that more than 50 percent of the AIDS cases are reported from rural India, of which 40% happen to be women. Ramadoss expressed how the campaign had slightly changed its strategy from the previous ABC campaign-‘Abstinence, Behavior changes and Condom’ to the present, CCC, which is simply ‘Condom, condom and condom’. Nearly 11,000 condom vending machines have been installed nation-wide making the condom a household item.The government is also gearing up to enable free treatment to 1,00,000 HIV/AIDS positive people and to realize this, 101 Anti-Retroviral Treatment centers have been instituted. The Minister also stressed the urgent need to combat both HIV and TB, by combining the services for both ailments. He petitioned the corporate services to contribute in partnering the programmes and to improve its’ R&D in evolving better treatment measures for checking the spread of HIV. A law to check stigma and discrimination at workplaces is also on the anvil
Source-Medindia
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