Sleeping with the enemy

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Sleeping with the enemy

Nearly 98 per cent of women with HIV have been infected by their husbands, AIDS

Society of India secy general Dr I S Gilada tells Ronita Tarcato.

Nearly 98 per cent of  women with HIV have been  infected by their husbands,

says the AIDS Society of India Secretary General,  Dr I S Gilada, who has been

studying the disease for over 20 years. He revealed this startling statistic on

the sidelines of a recent panel discussion on HIV/AIDS held at the American

Information Resource Centre.

There are those who would say the  good doctor was exaggerating, but the fact

is, he was only fleshing out a study from the world's leading  medical journal

Lancet which  attributes the  transmission to unprotected sex between 

promiscuous, unfaithful  men and sex workers. 

If that's not bad enough, a new AIDS threat is rising in India's call centres,

where young staff are increasingly having unprotected sex with multiple

partners, Dr Suniti , who detected the first HIV case in India in 1986,

told the International Congress on Infectious Diseases in Malaysia recently.

Call centres across India employ some 1.3 million people, mostly fresh

graduates. , who runs an AIDS centre in Chennai believes these " call

centre Romeos are a major high risk for HIV. "

" Mumbai is a good model for the control and care of people from all walks of

life, rich and poor,  observes Dr Gilada even as the National Aids Control

Organisation  (NACO) and the World  Bank says most of the HIV affected are 

concentrated in certain districts of  Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and

Andhra Pradesh according to reports.

Of these 3.8 per cent are children, most of whom have little access to health

care. Currently, a pitiful number of children (only 6,500) have access to 

medical treatment for the dreaded disease, according to Badiger, a

Programme Coordinator, at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences's Cell for AIDS

Research Action and Training (CARAT) in the course of the discussion.

The United Nations estimates there are at least 2.5 million Indians living with

HIV and AIDS now, giving India the dubious distinction of  having the second

largest number of HIV cases in the world.

However NACO suggests that the HIV rate has actually come down, due to condom

usage, and better awareness.  Badiger's colleague Nurith Divekar, also a

Programme Coordinator, TISS, CARAT, sounds a cautionary note about statistics of

doubtful provenance concerning the decrease in AIDS sufferers.

The HIV surveillance system collects data from pregnant women in antenatal

clinics, patients at STD clinics and high risk groups ( especially  in the

states of Bihar, Orissa, Rajasthan and  West Bengal ). But, as Divekar told this

writer, " Most pregnant women do not go for their delivery to hospitals, so there

is a sizeable number that is not taken into account " .

As things stand, AIDS tests are not compulsory and a government proposal to make

pre-marital testing mandatory has been opposed by a number of groups on various

grounds including human rights and the morality of compulsion. Badiger said she

was inclined to  favour voluntary tests.

Testing kits

Pravin Patkar, Director, Anti-Trafficking Centre, Prerana NGO  was among those

resisting the proposal, " but our opposition is based purely on clinical issues.

Also, the whole idea of compulsory AIDS tests is illogical, wrong, and

impractical, " he said, adding that the government's attempt to legislate tests

could well be motivated by a captive market for testing kits. 

Health education, safe sex and condom usage were stressed by the AIRC 

panelists, none of  whom, interestingly enough, cited abstinence as an important

factor in HIV-AIDS prevention.

Intriguingly, male circumcision, which is  known to help inhibit HIV

transmission, is being opposed by right wing Hindu activists who have called it

a " conspiracy. "

The Roman Catholic Church is also opposed to the  use of  prophylactics because

they encourage risky behaviour. They contend that condoms have tiny holes

through which the virus can pass.

http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jul192008/she2008071879587.asp