Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Feb 25, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Feb 25, 2004 |
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Industry & Economy
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Health AP to offer free treatment to AIDS patients from Apr 1 Our Bureau
Hyderabad , Feb. 24 THE Andhra Pradesh Government is launching a programme to offer free treatment to AIDS patients from April1. The Government's plan is in line with the `3 by 5 initiative' being taken up by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is aimed at providing access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) to three million people in developing countries. The ART helps the patients live longer. Disclosing this at the inauguration of the three-day AP leadership for results: HIV/AIDS programme here on Tuesday, Dr K. Anji Reddy, Director-General of Health Services (AP), said the State Government would launch the programme initially in Hyderabad. "We are intending to extend the same to Visakhapatnam, Guntur and Tirupati," he said. "Our aim is to make Andhra Pradesh a zero prevalent State. It is not just the job of the Government. We will take help from all the stakeholders," he said. Thanks to various measures taken by the Government and other agencies, the prevalence rate had come down to 1.53 per cent in 2003 from 2.43 per cent in 1999, he said. Stating that there was a close link between HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB), he said 50 per cent of HIV/AIDS patients were prone to develop TB, while 80 per cent of TB patients were susceptible to HIV/AIDS. According to him, the Government has decided to extend the network of voluntary testing and counselling centres to all the 117 community health centres. Moves to check against transmission of the disease from mothers to children had also been taken up in a big way. The second workshop of the kind is aimed at strengthening capacity of individuals and institutions for more effective and strategic leadership in tackling HIV/AIDS. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in association with the AP State AIDS Control Society (APSACS), is organising the workshop.
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