Emergency action plan to control HIV, AIDS in NE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 September 2003, 17:19 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Health Ministry is to formulate an emergency action plan to control and prevent the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in the northeast province. A high level conference to work out a comprehensive plan is to be held on Friday morning at the North East Provincial Health Ministry auditorium, which is to be attended by high officials from the central health ministry, health authorities said.

Deputy Directors of Department of Health Services in all eight districts in the province, the district medical officers of health and other related officials have been invited to attend the conference, health officials said.

About 12 persons have contracted AIDS in the northeast province, the second highest in the island. The highest incidence of AIDS is in the western province, with 13 AIDS patients. Most of those who have contracted AIDS are returnees from abroad, provincial health officials said.

In the northeast province, 6 persons contracted AIDS have been detected in the Jaffna district, 4 in the Batticaloa district and 2 in Trincomalee district upto now, health officials said.

Meanwhile, Indian health officials have informed their counterparts in Sri Lanka that upto now about 10 Sri Lankan Tamils staying in the refugee camps in Tamilnadu have been detected suffering from the HIV virus, health officials said.

Provincial health officials have, meantime, started screening all returnees from abroad, especially from Tamilnadu, to the northeast province tto see whether they carry the HIV virus, a health official said.