The Centre on Tuesday launched a special drive to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among children in India.
Will focus on elimination of stigma and discrimination
NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday launched a special drive to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among children in India.
A comprehensive policy has been framed to deal with children infected and affected by the disease. The policy aims to cover children below 18 years of age who are either themselves infected by the disease or have parents who are AIDS patients. In addition, it targets adolescents living in communities vulnerable to HIV or are practising unsafe behaviour and are at a heightened risk.
The government will supply medicines to mothers and newborns to stop HIV transmission to infants and promote institutional deliveries. “Over 21,000 children are infected each year through mother-to-child transmission of the virus. One of the constraints is the higher number of deliveries at home,” said health secretary Naresh Dayal.
The government already runs a nationwide programme called Prevention of Parent-to-Child Transmission and claims to have counselled and tested nearly five million mothers, detected 47,000 HIV positive mothers and provided prophylaxis to 20,000 mother-baby pairs in the past four years.
However, through this new policy, a life cycle approach will be used, with focus on elimination of stigma and discrimination.
“The policy seeks to provide the much needed medical, social and psychological support to affected children,” said health and family welfare minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss.
A legislation to prevent discrimination against HIV infected children is on the cards. Officials feel that the legislation will help in checking cases of schools refusing admission to HIV-positive children or forcing them to leave. “Children have been told by relatives they will not inherit family property because of their HIV status. Anybody who hesitates to reach out to somebody with HIV is ignorant and should be labelled as such,” said Women and Child Development minister Renuka Chowdhury.
The government will aim at prevention of infection among adolescents through sex education.
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