NEW DELHI, India launched a massive campaign Friday to warn the public of the dangers of AIDS after detection last month of the country’s first known cases of the deadly disease, the government announced.
“There is no cause for panic regarding AIDS in our country, but at the same time there is no scope for complacency,” Deputy Health Minister S. Krishna Kumar said in a statement broadcast on government-run television.
News reports have said the women were prostitutes, but it has not been revealed how the disease reached India,
“Understandably, the news of AIDS being detected in India is a matter of concern, If not anxiety to all of us,” Kumar said, stressing the six. Cases had not shown symptoms of AIDS, just the presence of the virus in their bodies.
‘The usually fatal disease breaks down the body’s immune system. Leaving the victim vulnerable to a host of infections. “These cases are under very careful surveillance and all possible measures are being taken to check the disease,” said Kumar. “It is important that the general public is made aware of this “massive multi-media health education campaign” to warn Indians of the nature of AIDS. The minister said the government alerted all 106 medical colleges in the country to watch for AIDS cases and instructions were issued to seven AIDS centers to collect blood samples from high risk group’s homosexual men, drug abusers and hemophiliacs. “All professional blood donors
Will be screened hereafter for the presence of AIDS,” Kumar said. ‘Thousands of people work in India’s blood trade, driven by poverty {o sell their blood up to 10 times a month for about $5 a visit.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 16, 1986
