AP Villagers asks AIDS community care center to move out

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Indian village asks AIDS community care center to move out

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/31/content_11970787.htm

www.chinaview.cn 2009-08-31

NEW DELHI, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- A village administration in Nalgonda district of

Andhra Pradesh, south-central India, has passed a resolution asking a community

care center for people living with HIV or AIDS to be shifted out of the village,

said a source quoting a local villager on Monday.

The villagers want the center to be shifted out because they fear they will get

those diseases, said the source.

The center has 10 beds and is funded by National Aids Control Organization

(NACO). It is now run by a corporate hospital after moving in the village in

June.

The authorities say though the resolution is passed by a democratic body, it has

no legal validity and must be annulled.

Villagers have written a letter to the local administration, saying: " Let them

locate the center one kilometer away from the village or shift it back into the

main hospital premises. "

Some expressed concern that medical waste was not being disposed off properly

and we fear that mosquitoes could transmit the disease.

Others say that they are worried about opportunistic infections like

tuberculosis in the patients moving around in the village.

Editor: Chris