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Govt urged to revise policies on HIV/AIDS
KATHMANDU, NOV 16 - Experts today laid emphasis on the need to re-evaluate government policies concerning HIV/AIDS.
Speakers at a discussion programme organised in the capital today said the existing policies concerning HIV/AIDS should be revised since it has not been able to accommodate all aspects of preventive measures of the disease, which has resulted in its ineffective implementation.
Stating that HIV/AIDS is interconnected with poverty, Padma Mathema, chief of the health division at the National Planning Commission said, "The tenth plan has given priority to HIV/AIDS." Mathema opined that since the disease is prevalent among the poor, poverty reduction would help in controlling the disease.
Similarly, Sibesh Chandra Regmi, Director, Action Aid said, "As the discriminatory social behaviour has forced women to adopt prostitution, the government should formulate policies with an objective to change social attitudes."
"Though the existing policies are advantageous from the humanitarian perspectives, it has failed in the implementation part," Regmi added.
Dr. Benu Bahadur Karki, Chief of the Planning Division at the Health Ministry said the policies have not been able to achieve the expected target. "However, this does not mean nothing has been achieved." Karki further said the ministry was concerned about the ineffectiveness of counselling and experiment programme. He also informed that the government was in the process of revising the programmes of the Global Fund and changing the institutional structure.
Kapil Kafle, co-ordinator of NavaKiran Plus, alleged that the data revealed by the government on the number of people afflicted by the use of syringe was misleading. The government in a global fund programme had said that 62 percent of the HIV infection was through syringe.Posted on: 2003-11-15 08:59
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