A colourful compendium on HIV for clinicians

THOUGH HIV/AIDS is more widely known than ever before and the country has about 3.6 million people infected with the AIDS causing virus, expertise on HIV diseases is almost entirely borrowed from the West. YRG Care, a leading non-government institution working in the field of HIV/AIDS has made the first step to change that. The Chennai based organisation, in association with the British Council, DFID and East West Books, has brought out a colour guide for medical professionals in India.

The book, for the first time, has the entire range of HIV- related illnesses that are commonly seen in India. The samples and slides are from India and the experts, who have contributed to the book, are among the best in their disciplines in the country. Beginning with the medical and statistical basics of the disease, the book ``HIV Disease in India'' packs in 115 pages, what a doctor ought to know about the disease.

The main aim of the book, according to the Editors, Dr.Sunithi Solomon, Director, YRG; Dr. S. P. Thyagarajan, Head of the Department of Microbiology, Dr. ALMPGIBMS and Dr. Eric Walker, travel medicine specialist from the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health, Glasgow, is to take medical information to doctors in all parts of the country. It equips them to suspect and detect HIV in medically obvious cases and then manage them. In the absence of this highly specialised knowledge, which the YRG acquired over the last several years of first-hand experience working with affected people, these cases would go undetected.

``Even when there are obvious signs, clinicians might not think of HIV because of the lack of knowledge. The book hopes to bridge this gap,'' said Dr. Sunithi Solomon. ``Even within the country, the manifestation of HIV disease varies from place to place''. The book brings all of them together, under various categories with lucid illustrations and pictures.

``It will also help medical students,'' says Dr. Walker, who is also a travel-medicine expert. HIV also is largely travel related. ``Otherwise it would not have come out of central Africa''.

After detecting HIV, what next ? ``This book will be followed by one on treatment guidelines, which will allow physicians to treat the affected even in the remote parts of the country,'' adds Dr. Solomon.

By G. Pramod Kumar

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Section  : Features