HIV services must reach all: Ramadoss at AIDS Summit

In a speech at the17th International Conference on AIDS in Mexico City, the Indian Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Anbumani Ramadoss, stressed on the reach of HIV services to all including those on margins of society and that too in an enabling environment.

“Enabling environment that can ensure HIV prevention services for all who need them is the key to overcoming the HIV epidemic,” says the health minister.

The minister advocating the rights of homosexuals said: “Structural discrimination against those who are vulnerable to HIV such as sex workers and men having sex with men must be removed if our prevention, care and treatment programmes are to succeed”.

“Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalizes Men who have sex with Men, must go,” Ramadoss further said.

“India’s dedicated focus on HIV prevention is fetching dividends. We are seeing the beginning of the stabilization of the HIV epidemic in India,” said Dr. Anbumani, however, he also expressed his caution for not be complacent.

At present India homes about 2.5 million HIV infected people though latest report from some states have recorded some stabilization in the numbers. India, which has launched a large scale HIV prevention care and treatment strategy to achieve universal coverage by 2011 through the National AIDS Control Program- III, launched in 2007, is mostly dependent on strong community participation.

The Health minister also quoted to intensify community participation in all parts of the country to further enhance HIV prevention and care drive.

However, he also expressed concern on the rising cases on northern India, especially in the rural interiors which resides thousands of migrate workers who work outside their states in cities like Mumbai and Surat.

“Focus should be on the migrant workers and special initiatives must be launched addressing their needs to avert a potential rise of HIV infections among migrant populations,” said Ms. K. Sujatha Rao, Additional Secretary and Director General of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), India’s apex body working on HIV/AIDS prevention.

null