India committed to combating AIDS

July 12, 2004

India today reaffirmed its political commitment to control the spread of

HIV/AIDS.

At the second Asia-Pacific ministerial meeting on HIV/AIDS in Bangkok, the

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Anbumani Ramadoss, said India's

new United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government had expressed its strong

political commitment " in this regard through the Common Minimum Programme that

provided the framework for governance.

India, the Minister said, perceived the control of the HIV/AIDS epidemic as

not only a major public health challenge " but also a development imperative " .

Dr.Ramadoss recalled in this context that Gandhi, currently the UPA

chairperson, had told a special session of the U.N. General Assembly in 2001

that success in the control of HIV/AIDS could be accomplished if we are both

compassionate in our approach and passionate in our execution " .

As at the end of 2003, India had identified cases of 5.1 million HIV

infections, accounting to less than one per cent of the population. While India

had moved swiftly and competently " to counter the spread of the disease, the

national AIDS control remains under-resourced " and the country's needs in this

battle remained immense " .

Tracing the steps already taken, the Minister said anti-retroviral therapy

(ART) had been introduced in India in April 2004 free of cost, through the

public sector " . The civil society had also been co-opted in this regard, and a

consortium " of non-governmental agencies will now systematically mobilise

community-level responses " . Maintaining that the initiative is beginning to gain

momentum " , the Minister said India could offer other developing countries access

to its pharmaceutical sector that was producing relevant anti-retroviral drugs

at affordable prices.

Source: - The Hindu, July 12, 2004, Madurai Edition

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Yours in Global Concern, A. SANKAR

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