Hyderabad, June 26: Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy exuded confidence that Andhra Pradesh would be able to halt and reverse the spread of HIV/ AIDS infection in the State by 2012. A delegation from UNAIDS led by convenor of AP Legislators Forum on HIV/AIDS Sailajanath and APSACS Project Director RV Chandravadan met the Chief Minister at the latter’s Camp Office this morning, to discuss and take his message on effective methods to combat HIV/ AIDS. Rajasekhara Reddy told them that the State would be able to achieve the goal of AIDS Control Society as the HIV prevalence has come down from 2 per cent in 2004 to 0.88 per cent in 2007, with increasing awareness and scale up of services. More and more people should get tested voluntarily to know their HIV status.
Besides, all political parties, cutting across party lines, should come forward to create awareness among people on the issue (HIV/ AIDS), he opined.
According to a press release here, the UNAIDS in association with Parliamentary and Legislators forum on HIV/AIDS has taken up several initiatives to encourage political leadership for prevention and control of HIV/AIDS. It has now come up with a document titled “India – Portraits of commitment’’ to showcase effective leadership exhibited by various stakeholders. In this connection, the UNAIDS delegation met Rajasekhara Reddy as he was one of the three Chief Ministers in the country profiled in this UNAIDS document. The other two were Chief Ministers of Manipur and Nagaland.
Rajasekhara Reddy, in his message, stated that providing basic services like care, support and treatment to the HIV infected persons and making more and more people aware of HIV/AIDS should be priority of the programme. In Andhra Pradesh, people living with HIV were provided with pensions and white ration cards, and awareness programmes were taken up involving self-help groups and other departments.
The Chief Minister appreciated the efforts under `Mee Nestam’ programme which included providing SAHARA identity cards to people receiving ART medicines, mobile testing and IEC vans to reach the unreached, scaling up of services for testing, STD treatment and ART medicines, among others, the release added.
–Agencies—