In Kangra, 5K attend virtual event on AIDS

r Correspondent

Nurpur, December 1

As many as 5,000 stakeholders across Kangra district attended the national virtual event organised to observe World AIDS Day today. The theme of the event was ‘Global solidarity, shared responsibility’. Stakeholders from Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre (ICTC), STI clinics, blood banks, red ribbon clubs and NGOs in the district attended the event.

RK Sood, District AIDS Programme Officer, said over 99.7 per cent of India’s population is free from HIV. The focus of India‘s national programme had shifted on prevention of the spread of HIV, while ensuring access to non-stigmatised treatment and care for all infected persons, he said.

“No child is born with HIV, and elimination of mother to child transmission is an important goal to be achieved at the earliest. For this, every pregnant woman must undergo HIV test at the earliest,” he said.

Gurdarshan Gupta, Chief Medical Officer, Kangra, said owing to the pandemic antiretroviral treatment was being provided near the native places of AIDS patients through ICTC staff in Kangra. He asserted that youth members of Red Ribbon Clubs in the district were acting as role models in leading AIDS prevention campaigns.

“The ‘test and treat’ policy of the government, launched in 2017, has reached a new horizon. Early treatment plays an important role in viral suppression, thereby decreasing the risk of transmission,” Sood said.

He said the national toll free AIDS helpline (1097) had been playing a vital role in reaching out to people.