Re: Indian recipe for death

[Guest guest]

I refer to the article " An efficient recipe for more death: AIDS in India

[http://www.iht.com/articles/63940.html] By Joanne Csete , International Herald

Tribune July 10, 2002, posted onto this list, which detailed the contradictions

in indian implementation of prevention strategies, and the disaster in public

health and HIV transmission the author asserts has arisen.

The author of the particular article is not alone, and there are a fairly large

number of commentators in India itself and externally who would agree. Even if

you discount the more hysterical or factional contributions in this vein, there

remains a consensus amongst credible observers that things are not as they

should be.

I wonder if members of this list would care to comment on the article in

question, and the general thesis, in the context of the chorus of

self-congratulation that rang through this list upon the resignation and

promotion of the previous head of NACO. I am not here looking for a condemnation

of NACO as such, or it's current or past operatives.

However, if one read the praise for effort, and the joyous announcements of

effective program implementation, one would have thought that India had won the

fight, and defeated or contained the epidemic. Articles such as these paint

completely the opposite picture.

How will India step beyond sycophantic self-congratulation, and meet the needs

of not only the 4+ million now infected, but the millions at risk, and the

rapidly escalating infection rate?

Quentin

E-mail:vicente@...

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