For Lankan- Tamil refugees HIV/AIDS is a new problem

[Guest guest]

For Lankan refugees HIV/AIDS is a new problem

By Pushpa Narayan

Chennai, Nov 9: The Sri Lankan refugees camping in Tamil Nadu have a shock in

store when they return to their homeland - the stigma of HIV/AIDS.

The delegates from Sri Lanka attending a workshop for women communicators

organised by UNESCO and SciDevNet, said the refugees from this part of India

were being looked at as carriers of the HIV virus. Provincial health officials

in Sri Lanka, according to newspaper reports, have started screening all those

who return to the North-East from abroad to check if they carry the virus.Æ

±``Most returnees of recent times lead almost an ostracised life. Reports in the

Indian media state time and again that Tamil Nadu has the maximum number

HIV/AIDS-affected people in India and hence the panic,'' noted Dilinika Peiris,

a delegate from Colombo.

``Indian health officials have reportedly informed our government that about ten

inmates of the Tamil Nadu refugee camps have been detected HIV positive,'' she

added. There are more than 60,000 people living in 100-odd camps in Tamil Nadu.

According to National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) website, Tamil Nadu had

more than 24,600 cases of HIV/AIDS until October 31, 2003. ``We understand that

this is only because the surveillance in this part of the country is better. But

sadly, it has its own ramifications. The refugees have their own set of problems

and HIV/AIDS can isolate them from the

society even more,'' Peiris said.

The Lankan government, according to another Colombo delegate - name withheld -,

seems to consider AIDS as an essentially North-East problem. Recently The Sunday

Leader, a leading English weekly, had reported that the

Lankan Health Ministry was in the process of formulating an emergency action

plan to control and prevent the HIV/AIDS in the North-East Province.

According to available data, about 12 persons have contracted HIV/AIDS in the

North-East Province and the number is 13 for the Western Province.

``The health department officials say most of those infected are returnees from

abroad. What with alarming reports of the Tamil Nadu, the refugees are

inevitably considered a high-risk group,'' Peiris said.

While Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society Project Director K Deenabandu said

he was unaware of the situation in Lanka, the Sri Lankan officials and

the social workers working in the refugee front found the government decision

``shocking''.

C Chandrahasan, founder of the Organisation For Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation

(OFER), an organisation working for the welfare of the refugees in Tamil Nadu,

confirmed there were about 10 HIV positive people in the camps, but felt the

Lankan government would do better to conduct an awareness programme on HIV/AIDS

instead of detecting the HIV/ AIDS affected and then leaving them to the mercy

of social currents.

Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner Sumit Nakandala agreed there was a need for

an awareness programme and said he would submit a memorandum to his government

on the issue. ``Moreover, we must also look at what we can do for the HIV

positive people living in the Tamil Nadu camps at the moment,'' he added.

Soruce: New India express Nov. 9

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