Straight Answers

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Dr S Dodwad</span>, additional project director, Maharashtra State Aids Control Society (MSACS)on controlling AIDS in the State<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">What is MSACS?</span><br /><br />Every state has been asked to create a society by National Aids Control Society (NACO), funded by World Bank, Delhi, which is headed by IAS officers or senior public health officers.Thus MSACS was created and our challenge was to support a state with the highest rate of migration and urbanisation. MSACS, under the National Aids control programme, deals with activities such as the control of sexually transmitted disease and condom promotion.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">What challenges does the state face?</span><br /><br />Maharashtra supports 10 per cent of the country’s population and has the largest single male population. National highways pass through this state, giving rise to a flourishing sex business. Besides, the prevalence of HIV is alarming in the prosperous belts, with Sangli registering 2,465 Aids cases, followed by Kolhapur with 1,106 and Pune has 1,026 cases. These are the statistics as of 2003.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">What does MSACS hope to do with this situation?</span><br /><br />We are working on keeping the HIV prevalence rate below 50 per cent in Maharashtra. We are also trying to reduce blood-borne transmission of HIV to less than one per cent, besides attaining awareness levels of 90 per cent among youth and others in the reproductive age group.We also hope to achieve condom use of not less than 90 per cent among the high risk categories, especially CSWs.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">What are the various activities MSACS is involved with?</span><br /><br />We have tried to make people aware about safe blood and that they should go to the 262 government approved blood banks where more than 7 lakh units of blood are collected. Besides, the HIV reactivity has been successfully reduced in the last five years from 1.8 to 0.97 per cent. We also have voluntary counselling and testing centres which have been established in every district hospital and government medical college.<br /><br />We have also worked on prevention of parent to child transmission of HIV/Aids, with the project implemented at 55 centres, 30 government and private medical colleges and 25 district hospitals. Apart from these projects, MSACS is also promoting family health awareness, condom promotion programmes and Aids prevention education programmes for students.<br /><br /></div> </div>