CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu stands first in the National AIDS Control Organisation ranking for big states for AIDS-related works, said Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Thursday. Speaking at an event on World AIDS Day, he said that the state bagged the first rank for various programmes in AIDS control and prevention. In Tamil Nadu, 0.18% of the population is infected with HIV. It is, however, 0.24% at a national level. He also said the state was trying to reduce its percentage further.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to monitor the supply-chain management of blood and blood products was launched at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, Chennai, and Rajaji Medical College Hospital, Madurai. The facility will be extended to other blood banks as well.
The minister also launched a mobile application for blood donors. This will be helpful to hospitals in need of blood. All details of voluntary donors would be recorded online, Ma Subramanian said. In the journey towards ending AIDS, one of the first milestones should be the elimination of parent-to-child transmission of HIV as that didn’t even need a change in behaviour, said Dr N Kumarasamy, Director, Infectious Diseases Medical Centre at Voluntary Health Services, Chennai.
India, despite its progress in eliminating parent-to-child transmission of HIV, was yet to achieve the goal. The coverage of pregnant women who receive treatment to prevent HIV transmission to the unborn child was 64%. The vertical transmission rate, including during breastfeeding, was 24.3%. This is another “missed opportunity” that India couldn’t afford to ignore if it intended to root out AIDS by 2030.