Border Security Force combats AIDS

July 31, 2005

By Pallav Basu, Siliguri:

With the rising number of Human Immuno-deficiency Virus(HIV)

positive cases rising among Border Security Force(BSF) personnel,

Prahari, an AIDS awareness project has been organised at the BSF

headquarters of North Bengal frontier at Kadamtala, near Siliguri in

Darjeeling district to tackle the problem head-on.

The BSF, is the first paramilitary organisation in the country to

launch an enhanced awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention programme.

" There are around 70,000 jawans deployed in north-eastern India and

54 HIV positive cases have been detected till date " . This is the

reason why the BSFlaunched `Parhari' project, so that more jawans

are not affected by the virus. And those who are already

affected ,we are providing them with all medical aid, " said S K

Mitra, DIG BSF.

There has been a sharp increase in the estimated number of HIV

infections in the country, from a few thousand in the early 1990s to

around 5.1 million children and adults in 2003.

The first case of HIV infection in India was diagnosed among

commercial sex workers in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in 1986. Soon after, a

number of screening centres were established throughout the country.

Initially, the focus was on screening foreigners, especially foreign

students. Gradually, the focus moved to the screening of blood

banks. By early 1987, efforts were made to set up a national network

of HIV screening centres in major urban areas.

The National AIDS Control Programme was launched in 1987 covering

surveillance, screening blood and blood products and promotion of

health education. In 1992 the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) was

established. NACO formulates policy and conducts prevention and control

programmes.

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