Re: Bihar: Mandatory to report HIV/AIDS

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum members:

Its good to know that the Bihar State Government is doing something about

HIV/AIDS. But why make reporting of New cases of HIV/AIDS mandatory and with

names. Is it just a tool to say that they are doing something. Or if any rules

and regulations are set to gaurd the confidentiality of the persons status? Or

How would this very highly confidential information be restricted to the top

officials of the Medical Department and SACS? Will the top official be involved

in accepting all names submitted by doctors/Clinics/Hospitals from the state

personally? How is this machanism goin to work? Why ask for names? Will the

state/SACS help these people specifically? What are the services that will be

made available to them? Does is the State ready to tackle this problem? Will

consent be taken from the concerned person before submitting the names? Wont it

discourage people to get voluntarily tested?

Lots of questions revolves in my mind about Reporting HIV/AIDS. Maybe we should

ponder more deeply before doing anything that would jeopardise the work of

existing NGOs and CBOs.

Could anyone clear the doubts for all of us here in the forum?

Thank you.

O. Lall

E-mail: <jol@...>

__________________________

[Guest guest]

Dear Naik,

Thank you for your opinion. Re: Bihar: Mandatory to report HIV/AIDS

After having seen the response of on this issue I am heartbroken. Only two

esteemed members of the forum responded to the question of Mandatory reporting

and confidentiality involved.

Either our forum needs to be more active or something. Your idea would be

helpful for the Government. But I wonder how trustable the people in the

department are.

O. Lall

E-mail: <jol@...>

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum Members,

I dragged my skeletal frame back to Australia after the expiry of my

statutory 180 days in India to ponder what I learned in that time from just

under 50 agencies, 100's of positive people and 16 States.

One of the things that stands out is the lack of effective monitoring of

Infectious Diseases in India.

Of course we are concerned about HIV in this list but why single out this

one. What India needs is a State Based piece of Infectious diseases

legislation with a mandatory government funded testing facility and

guaranteed anonymity of persons being tested.

We have a model here in Australia so it doesn't need inventing.

It will allow a sophisticated form of epidemiology on all infectious

diseases. Where the problems are, what age groups, what are the real

numbers, how those numbers are moving up or down and which groups are being

affected at any given quarter. It will cost money but even the Prime

Minister agrees that a healthy India is a wealthy India and I think that the

HIV-AIDS epidemic should be the focus for a very well thought out Infectious

Diseases ACT. Key players of course would be medical practitioners and they

could provide the anonymity link between the government and their patients.

It happens here without a problem. If anyone would like a copy of our Act it

has been posted with a faulty link but I can direct anyone who wants to

study it to the site. It is 49 pages but everytime I read it and I have read

and printed it many times I marvel at its comprehensivity and sensitivity to

patients. I make no excuses that the testing facility should be provided by

the government at its own expense and it can establish its own rules about

accountability but Health Ministers and their advisors are operating in a

dark room at the moment. In one breath they are saying overseas advisors are

scare mongering and in the other breath they are scrambling for cost

effective answers.

If this issue is taken up with all the necessary checks and balances which

no doubt the Indian Lawyers Collectives can monitor on behalf of their

citizens we will get a handle on what is happening in infectious diseases in

India and where.

Targeting will be easier, predictions will be more accurate, allocations of

funding will be more precise and there will be less knee jerk reactions.

Post Test counselling can be better targetted as well.

What really troubled me about my conversations with +ve people in India was

that so few of them had any idea of their health status. I tried to find

people who discovered their status early and there were very few that I

found. Many people started to try to reverse the damage when five eighths of

the post infection treatment options were already lost to them. So sad

really.

I want to congratulate the Government of Bihar in making the decision but it

will not have any impact apart from driving testing out of Bihar. It has no

effective epidemiological focus and with the other 28 States floundering for

want of practical information the epidemic will not be reversed.

Of course we need prevention but who are we trying to reach and are the

messages working. Of course we need treatment access but what about the cost

effective immune enhancement that can save people from expensive medicine

for six to eight years after they become +ve if only they know their status.

Business and community groups can also benefit because it is very possible

for positive people to remain working or return to work. I had the most

exciting of conversations with some +ve people in Maharashtra who have been

cared for, medicated, fed properly and who have been involved in mutual

support activity with one another that are now ready to return to the

workforce and a sense of self determination. Of course some capital will

have to be raised but I think that India needs to hear more about +ve people

becoming independent instead of the expectation that they should remain

closetted and just wait to face the inevitable end. There are plenty of folk

here who are moving into their third decade of work as +ve people; why not

Indians.

It was pleasing to see a number of them in our New Years Honours lists in

Australia this year. What a time I had over 180 days and one day soon I

expect to be back to follow up on some of the projects particularly the ones

that actually involve +ve people. I have this vision that well +ve people

will be working for the HIV-AIDS funding dollars and becoming independent

enough financially to afford their own medicine. They should not have to do

the government's job and pay for the epidemiology (testing) as well.

Thats all for now.

Thanks Lall for posing the question that provoked this response. It has

taken a lot of eating and sleeping to be able to concentrate again but now I

am well.

Geoffrey

Geoff Heaviside

Brimbank Community Initiatives Inc

Sponsoring Sunshine Budget Advisory Service

5 Brisbane Street

P.O. Box 606 Sunshine 3020

. Australia.

Ph: 0418 328 278

Ph/Fax : (03) 9311 5052

E-mail: <gheaviside@...>