 TN gets Rs 68 cr to fight AIDS
Tamil Nadu has been allotted Rs 68 crore this year for combating HIV/AIDS, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Panabaka Lakshmi said in Chennai on November 5, 2006.
Speaking at a national workshop on HIV/AIDS for teachers in Christian colleges, she said of that amount Rs 23 crore had already been allotted to the state.
The Central government was committed to preventing spread of HIV and had constituted the National Council for AIDS (NCA) comprising 31 key ministries and chief ministers of three high prevalence states, in addition to representatives of the civil society.
In the absence of a medical vaccine for HIV, "education vaccine" would be the only effective social vaccine that can prevent new infections and reduce economic suffering and loss, she said.
The number of anti-retro viral therapy centres in the country, which was 97 now, would soon be increased to 250 to treat over three lakh HIV patients, the Minister said. (Agencies)
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