Indian Catholic health care organisation helps AIDS patients

(Oct.27,2010) The Catholic Health Association of India, CHAI, one of the world’s largest non-governmental organisations in the health sector, decided during its recent general meeting to pay more attention to HIV/AIDS patients. The general meeting, held at the CHAI Training Centre in Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh State, attracted more than 550 health care workers and activists, including bishops, priests and nuns. Three topics dominated the proceedings, but the most discussed issue was AIDS.
Fr Mukundev Boloiarsingh, a delegate from Orissa, told AsiaNews that the number of HIV/AIDS victims is growing in the country. He said CHAI, as church-based organisation can contribute to the prevention of HIV/AIDS, as well as educate the public on how to care and love HIV/AIDS patients and not discriminate against them. He noted that in too many cases, people with HIV/AIDS have been sent away by their families and communities. Some have been denied necessary medical treatment. In some cases, they were even deprived of the last rites before death.
India has a population of about a billion people, around half of whom are adults in the sexually active age group. Its first AIDS case was detected in 1986 and since then, HIV infections have been reported in all states and union territories. The highest HIV prevalence rates are found in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in the south, as well as Manipur and Nagaland in the northeast. The vast majority of patients are heterosexual
(80 per cent), mostly among high-risk groups like female, male sex workers, and drug users.