Assam, State AIDS patients face harrowing time

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State AIDS patients face harrowing time

From Our Spl. Correspondent

NEW DELHI, July 19 – HIV + and AIDS patients in Assam are having to

pass through harrowing times as the State's lone CD 4 machine suffers

frequent breakdowns, convener of the National Women's Forum of Indian

Network for People Living with HIV/AIDS (INP+), Jahnavi Goswami said.

The State Government's inaction in not pressurising the National AIDS

Control Organisation (NACO) appears curious. The Government spends

crores on AIDS awareness campaigns but has no funds to buy the CD4

machine costing Rs 19-22 lakh. Assam has around 25,000 suspected HIV

+ cases, out of which 2000 are confirmed cases.

NACO sanctions the machines on the basis of set criteria including

recommendations of the State Government and rate of HIV prevalence

cases, among others.

Goswami, who hails from Assam, was today appointed as the convener of

the Women's Forum launched on Monday last as part of the INP+. The

National Women's Forum (NWF) has been set up to address the issues of

HIV + women and children.

The three-day `Visioning Workshop' was joined by a host of Central

Ministers and leaders including Rahul Gandhi, who interacted at

length with the persons living with HIV. Union Minister of State

Fernandes attended the three-day event inaugurated by Union

Minister of Women and Child Welfare, Renuka Choudhury.

Goswami said the healthcare scenario in Assam was grim because

suspected HIV + and AIDS patients are suffering on account of the

failure to install a second CD4 machine. The machine in Guwahati

suffers frequent breakdowns leaving poor people who travels from

distant places high and dry.

The CD4 count is used to ascertain how far HIV disease has advanced

and helps predict the risk of complications and debilitating

infections. The CD4 count is used in combination with the viral load

test, which measures the level of HIV in the blood, to determine the

staging and outlook of the disease. The CD4 count is also used to

identify possible health problems for which you may be at risk and to

determine which medications might be helpful.

Meanwhile, Goswami said the number of Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART)

Centres is inadequate for a State of the size of Assam. " We have 27

districts but have only two ART centres – one each at Guwahati and

Dibrugarh, which is inadequate, " she said.

On the level of discrimination towards HIV+ persons, Goswami, who has

assumed the mantle of an activist, said it was still high with

frequent reports of HIV+ people being denied employment, residential

accommodation, their children being debarred from admission in

schools.

According to our surveys, there are 62 children whose parents are

HIV+ and of these 10 are orphans. However, no orphanage would adopt

them. After a long struggle, last month SOS Children's Village

adopted four of these kids, who had nowhere to go, she said.

The nature of problems in the North-east is slightly different from

the rest of the country. In the region, the number of HIV+ people

getting infected due to drug use (IDUs) is more than the rest of the

country. In the NER, the women also face different problems. There

are reports of a lot of women dying in Manipur because of the disease.

The north-eastern States of Manipur and Nagaland along with

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka are among the

States considered as high prevalent States.

Goswami said their organisation has 55,000 women members living with

HIV spread across 23 States and 109 districts. " We felt an ardent

need to address the issues of women and children living with HIV,

specifically, rights to equality, health, education, livelihood,

sexual, reproductive, legal, financial, and be protected from

violations and neglect, " said Goswami.

http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=jul2007/at09