Communitarian role in war against HIV/AIDS stressed
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, January 02 2012:
The strong communitarian and social relations within the state of Manipur can act as a strong weapon in the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic, according to Dr S.K.Chaurasia, Project Director of Manipur State AIDS Control Society (MSACS).
Dr Chaurasia was speaking as Chief Guest at the inaugural function of a two-day capacity building training programme of pediatricians and medical officers of Integrated Counseling and Testing Centres (ICTC)s on "Early Infant Diagnosis and HIV Exposed Infant (HEI) Care and Treatment" .
The programme which kicked off today at the conference hall of Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) was organized by Regional Pediatric ART Centre (RPC), JNIMS in collaboration with MACS and UNICEF Assam office.
The two-day programme which started today is the first in a series of three batches of training sessions spread over six days from January 2-7, 2012.While the first two batches will be participated by 72 pediatricians and medical officers of ICTCs, the last batch will comprise 20 participants from link ART and Community Care centres.
Prof.Gopi Mohon, Medical Superintendent of JNIMS presided over today's inaugural programme while former Project Director of MACS, Dr Pramod Kumar and Nursing Superintendent of JNIMS, Sister Randhoni were the Guests of Honour.
Stating that preventive as well as remedial measures against HIV/AIDS started late in Manipur, Dr Chaurasia elaborated on the need of a specific strategy for the state in view of the special circumstances and conditions vis-�-vis other states.
In his welcome address, Dr Apabi Hijam, Nodal Officer in-charge of Regional Pediatric ART Centre, JNIMS, pointed out that with the opening of new link ART centres in the state, the decentralisation of services to people living with HIV/AIDS has been initiated and hence such training programmes are very necessary.
Dr Pramod Kumar pointed out that though globally the overall rate of new infection and deaths in the HIV/AIDS epidemic is reducing, in Manipur it is still a major concern as the state has the highest adult HIV prevalence in the country.
The government sector is continuing its role of case management and case detection, however there seems to be a major gap in the targeted intervention implementation part by the NGO sector, he said.
Nursing Superintendent of JNIMS, Sister Randhoni pointed out lack of such training programmes for nurses and appealed for conducting the same as the nurses too have an important role in the fight against the epidemic.