Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore: A network that helps `positive people'

[Guest guest]

A network that helps `positive people'

Anasuya Menon

COIMBATORE: Members of Coimbatore Network for Positive People (CNP +)

are present in 19 blocks of Coimbatore district. They act as outreach

workers to identify cases of HIV or tuberculosis (TB) and motivate

people to get themselves checked.

In India, 70 percent of the HIV positive people develop TB and most

of them die of the disease, says K.Mahadevan, in-charge of the

Department of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Coimbatore Medical

College Hospital.

Out of the opportunistic infections in people living with HIV/AIDS,

TB is the most common and seen as one of the indicators of HIV/AIDS,

he adds.

While for normal people it affects the lungs, it can manifest as TB

meningitis, TB liver, TB abdomen or even TB spleen.

Also, for HIV positive people, TB can occur at any stage of the HIV

infection.

It has become extremely important for testing people diagnosed with

TB for HIV, as three to 30 per cent of the TB patients in Tamil Nadu

are HIV positive, Dr.Mahadevan says. The outreach workers of CNP+, co-

ordinate with the PHCs and urge the patients diagnosed with TB to

undergo the HIV test. The Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society

(TANSACS) is funding this project of CNP+.

People who test HIV positive and are diagnosed with TB are referred

for Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) for TB and Voluntary Testing and

Counselling Centres.

Counselling

Sometimes, the outreach workers also act as peer educators,

counselling those who have been tested positive to muster up courage

to live, says M.Somesh, President of CNP +. All the outreach workers

are HIV positive.

The outreach workers assess the medical facilities, the services

provided by local non-Governmental organisations (NGOs) and the ways

in which various organisations can help infected persons. They are

also motivated to join CNP+.

The CNP+ also has other programmes such as `Avahan' (advocacy

programme in workplace and health care settings), ACT (access to care

and treatment), and PPTCT (prevention of parent to child

transmission).

For more information on CNP+, contact: 0422-2595855 and 9443281947.

http://www.thehindu.com/2007/01/04/stories/2007010408920200.htm