City AIDS Control Society organizes rally on World AIDS Day
Indian Express: On the occasion of World AIDS Day today, the Pune City AIDS Control Society plans will take out an awareness rally in the city. The rally will start from Sassoon Hospital and end at Shaniwar Wada. The rally’s theme will be ‘Be HIV-positive’. Organisations like Network of People Living with HIV in Maharashtra have planned to encourage people to disclose their HIV-positive status while organisations like Sampathik trust will set up stalls in Pimpri-Chinchwad to distribute condoms among the high-risk MSM (Men having sex with men) group.
The National AIDS Research Institute has also kept an ‘open day’ so that people can visit their laboratories and understand what HIV is all about. On December 1, at 4 pm, several activists will participate in a march with the central message of ‘being HIV positive’.
“While the prevalence rate of HIV has stabilised, the stigma associated with the disease remains rampant and destructive,” says Roshni Mehta, coordinator of the Wake up Pune campaign. Activists claim that it is this societal pressure against speaking about HIV prevention and the discrimination against those infected, which fuels the spread of the virus.
“Reports of HIV-positive people being forced out from their homes and villages are not uncommon,” says Abbas Parvane, project Manager of Sahara Aalhad (a care home and rehabilitation centre for people living with HIV).
Meanwhile the Network of People Living with HIV in Maharashtra (NMP+) has also raised the issue of the slow scale-up for provisions of 2nd line of drugs for treatment of HIV which is increasingly beoming a concern for HIV positive people. According to Manoj Pardeshi of the NMP+, until March this year, only 344 patients had received the drugs.
According to a 2007 study conducted by the Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society (MSACS,) 18,039 people were tested for HIV in Pune between January and October. 12.27 per cent of those tested positive. This will be followed by a stage show which will include motivational speakers, dance, and music.
Organisations like Aarogya.com’s AIDS support group will also observe the World AIDS Day with the them ‘Universal access and human rights’.
At Aarogya.com’s e-support groups, efforts are made to bring people suffering from HIV and other illnesses together. They have decided to function as a matrimonial site for those with HIV, and will launch ‘Vivah’ on December 1.
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