Help to create awareness on HIV, nurses advised

Indian Medical Association (IMA), Udupi, president Dr Y S Rao said nursing students should  create awareness  about HIV virus and precautionary measures to be taken to protect themselves from the deadly disease.

Speaking after inaugurating the World  Aids Day  programme organised by the Red Cross Society, the IMA president said ignorance is posing a severe threat as people, without the proper knowledge  on safe sex and other implications of safe medical usage, are becoming the victim to the HIV and their number is increasing.

Unsafe sex, the spreading of the disease from the infected mother to the child in the womb and the blood transfusion are the main causes behind the spreading and increasing number of infected victims.
However, it is a myth that touching and treating the patients will spread the infection. The nursing students should indulge in the campaign to create awareness  about the spreading of the disease and the treatment that is available, he noted.  

Rao said Aids has no permanent cure.  If the infected persons consume nutritious food, he or she can keep the disease away and stay strong. Any infected person can lead normal life. The patients should be given confidence and made to live like any other man, he added.  

Govt programmes

Meanwhile, speaking at the World Aids Day programme organised by the Health Department, in association with Zilla Panchayat, former minister and kaup MLA Vinay Kumar Sorake said the government has introduced several programmes to help the HIV infected and AIDS patients.

The programmes help the infected to develop confidence and be part of the mainstream of the society, he added.

Sorake said the society should not look at the patients with a biased approach. Instead, the patient should be treated with empathy. Sympathy is not required. However, the situation is changing and the patients are no more treated with taboo, he added.

He said that the awareness initiative has led to the decline in the number of the infected. However, measures should be taken to make the number zero, he observed.  

Zilla Panchayat president Dinaker Babu released  a pamphlet carrying the messages of  creating the awareness against HIV and AIDS. Cooperation of all people is required, he said.