Orders To Terminate AIDS Healthworkers Withdrawn After Indian Health Ministry Intercedes

As states have been blaming lack of funds for the lay-offs, health ministry assured the states that enough funds will be provided for National AIDS program.

Many states have withdrawn their orders to sack the AIDS/HIV health workers, after intervention by the health ministry, so that activities to stop the spread of the deadly virus are not affected.

Both Delhi and Maharashtra state AIDS control society (SACS), which had directed NGOs working with targeted intervention groups to curtail outreach workers by 25% and peer educators by 80%, have put their earlier orders on hold. Gujarat is likely to follow suit soon, said official sources.

Screening for HIV/AIDS Infection
Efficient screening and better drugs help reduce the prevalence of HIV infection. A number of tests like ELIZA & Western Blot are used for screening HIV.

On 25th of July many states had either laid off or stopped paying salaries to health workers involved in national AIDS control program. This has posed a fresh challenge to India's largest health intervention initiative already reeling under shortages of condoms and antiretroviral medicines. Official said the health ministry has made an initiative for procurement of condoms and medicines to meet the shortage.

Besides creating awareness, mobilizing sex workers, transgenders and other vulnerable populations for HIV testing and treatment, these health workers are also involved in distribution of condoms and medicines. For the last 10 months around 6,000 AIDS health workers in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have not received salaries.

India has seen a decrease of 57% in the annual new HIV infections among adult population from 2.74 lakh in 2000 to 1.16 lakh in 2011, according to NACO's 2013-14 annual report. The government is planning to restructure the National AIDS Control Program, which has been under financial stress, to address the concerns.

India's AIDS Program, and Lives, at Stake Due to Severe Funding Crisis
The government anti-HIV initiatives had been in trouble for more than a year, with bureaucratic delays and a funding crunch resulting in shortages of drugs.

Source-Medindia

Doctor in Assam Claims He Cured 86 Persons With HIV/AIDS, Writes To UNAIDS
Dhani Ram Baruah, hit the headlines in 1997 for transplanting a pig’s heart to a human and was jailed for 40 days. Now he claims to have cured 86 with HIV.

Scientists Devise a Technique to Successfully Modify Human Immune Cells in Lab
The gene-editing system has captured the imagination of both scientists and the general public as it makes it possible to edit genetic information in any organism.