Dr SS Kudalkar retires on Tuesday with the satisfaction that it was during his tenure that the HIV prevalence rate in Mumbai showed a significant dip.
After heading the Mumbai Districts AIDS Society (MDACS) for four years, Dr SS Kudalkar retires on Tuesday with the satisfaction that it was during his tenure that the HIV prevalence rate in Mumbai showed a significant dip.
“When I took charge in 2008 and visited the first AIDS seminar in Delhi, people blamed Mumbai for exporting HIV to the north because of migration,” said Dr Kudalkar. “It was necessary to act fast as it would have affected the foreign inflow and could have had an adverse effect on the economy.”
According to Dr Kudalkar, the National AIDS control Programme-3, which was launched around the same time, played a key role along with the unique campaigns launched by MDACS in the last four years.
“We concentrated on the high-risk groups and launched campaigns that reached out to the maximum people. This helped to bring down the HIV prevalence graph systematically.”
The MDACS data show that not only there is a steady decline in the number of new cases, even number of deaths due to AIDS has reduced dramatically. The latest figures released by MDACS show that in 2007, 10.65% of those examined at the government integrated centres tested HIV-positive, while in October 2011, the percentage dropped to 5.84%. During the same period, the number of people signing up at the centres for HIV tests has increased.
He also launched interesting campaigns that were lauded by NACO and WHO. “Our ‘Make a common man the hero' theme for 2011-12 Blood Donation Day was appreciated by WHO and NACO. Now, they have decided to make it their theme for 2012-13 Blood Donation Day,” said a proud Dr Kudalkar.
In this campaign, the MDACS had through a lucky draw selected pictures of blood donors and put them up on hoardings and bus panels to spread the message. This resulted in 20% rise in blood donation last year.
Another campaign that was appreciated by NACO was condom promotion through phone sex chats. “We wanted to reach the right people and we hit upon the idea of phone sex. We printed the advertisements in local newspapers for two days and more than two lakh calls for a fortnight. NACO plan to adopt this drive across India now,” said Dr Kudalkar. I am happy… I was part of the change."
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