Indo-U.S. pact on health

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JUNE 14. India and the United States have reached an agreement for cooperation on health-related issues - prevention of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS, maternal and children's health and human development research. The agreements were signed in Washington on Tuesday by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and the visiting Indian Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. C.P. Thakur.

Addressing the media, Dr. Thakur said the cooperation in the field of HIV/AIDS would cover issues like sex education, targeting drug users and street urchins. The collaboration on maternal and children's health would be part of the Population Stabilisation Programme which would focus on educating people on population explosion besides providing facilities to the mother.

A lot of focus is emerging in the U.S. on HIV/AIDS in India with a perception that it is taking serious proportions. The estimated HIV/AIDS affected population is put at around 3.5 million and the Indian side is confident that it could be checked.

Dr.Thakur said the problem of HIV/AIDS in India was by and large a two-part phenomena - the big cities and in the Northeast by drug users. The third category of infection through blood transfusion has been brought under control. The spread of the virus is not through homosexuality but heterosexuality.

On the criticism that U.S. pharmaceutical companies manufacturing drugs for HIV/AIDS were not supplying them to developing countries at affordable prices, Dr.Thakur said this issue did not come up in his discussions with senior officials.

The Minister visited the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and held a meeting with Mr. Brady Anderson, the administrator of USAID. He also went on a familiarisation tour of the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

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Section  : International
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