Pune: Log in to learn about AIDS treatment

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Log in to learn about AIDS treatment

Online training course targets healthcare workers in hard-hit areas

Express News Service

Pune, December 11: HERE'S a pilot programme that will use the

internet for interactive training and education on HIV/AIDS

treatment and care. The HIVeDucation programme that got underway at

Ruby Hall Clinic on Sunday will train healthcare professionals on

the management of HIV/AIDS. It will primarily target healthcare

workers in regions of the world that have been hit hardest by the

HIV epidemic.

This online training programme will combine computer-based self-

study modules, participatory clinical case studies, e-assisted

tutoring, on-site workshops and others.

The idea is to harness the flexibility and reach of the internet to

expand HIV/AIDS treatment education. The online interactive

instructional programme has been launched by Therapeutics Research

Education AIDS Training (TREAT), ASIA and Ruby Hall Clinic.

Eight teams each of physicians, nurses and counsellors from Chennai,

Assam, Nagpur, Mumbai, Delhi and Karnataka will participate in the

training programme.

The pilot training course is an effort by TREAT Asia to help close

the doctors' gap in India, says Dr Sanjay Pujari, consultant in HIV

medicine at Ruby Hall Clinic.

India has witnessed a sharp increase in the availability of cheap,

generic anti-retrovirals, but training in the proper use of these

drugs has not kept pace with expanding access. Pujari, who is also

the chairman of the steering committee of Treat Asia HIV Observation

Database (TAHOD) in Asia, said that `observational data has been

collected uniformly on patients who are on ART and those HIV

patients who are not on ART. ``Some 2,000 patients have been

analysed and efforts are also underway to launch clinical trials on

the efficacy of the new anti-retroviral drugs,'' Pujari added. The

TAHOD is funded by American Foundation for AIDS research and one of

the TREAT Asia sites is Ruby Hall Clinic.

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