HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE
From End Of Poverty
7. HEALTH:
As part of promoting and strengthening Community Health Programme in order to attain sustainable development in the target communities, ASSIST acts as a facilitator to enhance the infrastructural facilities being provided by the Government from time to time for well being of all the members in the society.
Primary Health Centres:
Primary Health Centres are the nearest hospitals or referral centres for the target population. Majority of the centres lacks basic infrastructure – building, equipment, etc. ASSIST makes an attempt to improve these basic facilities so that the poor can have access to primary health services within their vicinity.
HIV/AIDS Education Centre:
To build up a momentum on a particular issue in the region, it is evident that one need to establish a centre where the information could be made available and from where the material on the issue could be further developed to combat that particular issue. Establishing a base centre to promote education on HIV/AIDS will have an immense impact on the public in the town. The project plans to establish five Education Centres in the problematic areas to cover the target families from 250 villages.
This centre will be a base to produce different educational material required for the programme and also to organise training camps for the staff and also to conduct meetings of various categories of people at the central level.
It is planned to set up a screening laboratory for HIV infection, as High Risk Groups are finding extremely difficult to get themselves screened in private clinics at high cost. Clinicians should assess risk factors for human immunodeficiency virus infection by obtaining a careful sexual history and inquiring about injection drug use in all patients. Periodic screening for infection with HIV is recommended for all persons at increased risk of infection. Screening is recommended for all pregnant women at risk for HIV infection, including all women who live in High Risk Areas. Screening infants born to high-risk mothers is recommended if the mother’s antibody status is not known. All patients should be counselled about effective means to avoid HIV infection.
ASSIST strongly felt social stigma prevailing on HIV/AIDS should be crossed to go further on the prevention and control programme. General public are afraid to speak of the HIV/AIDS as similar to the problems of Tuberculosis, Cancer and Hepatitis B some years ago. ASSIST visualises there has to be change in the society as similar to the problems such as TB, as a result of this Education Centre. As such, as a noted and recognised organisation in the area, ASSIST would like to make use of the Education Centre to enlighten the public on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in this area and highlights the necessity to develop a common action programme to overcome the dreaded problem. District Medical Authorities, Indian Medical Association, College Principals and local Journalists have been contacted and all have assured support in making use of the Education Centre to bring momentum to combat the problem of HIV/AIDS in this area. The proposed centre will be used for the following purposes:
• To exhibit all the items in relation to the causes, effects, preventive measures and control measures concerning HIV/AIDS; • To organise seminars on HIV/AIDS involving the medical professionals, academicians, public servants, NGOs, journalists, etc.; • To provide training for the health workers and counsellors on tackling the preventive and control measures on HIV/AIDS; • To develop the capacities of cultural troops on HIV/AIDS and to enable them to give performances in the selected areas in the town; • To explore the different strategies by organising consultations and discussions to deal with the categories such as youth, college students, people in automobile industry, etc. exclusively in designing appropriate programme for these categories to prevent and control HIV/AIDS in this area;
Screening Lab:
It is already mentioned above Government Dispensary and Urban Health Centres being run with the financial support of State Government do not have any screening facilities at present. A few private clinics are performing the Tridot test in Chilakaluripet charging Rs. 200- per person. There is no facility even in the private clinics in Chilakaluripet for the conduction of tests such as Elisa and Western Blot.
Lack of these facilities has become major bottleneck after having brought the awareness among the High Risk Groups. As a result, people having HIV/AIDS started dying. In between, efforts could not be made for want of conformity of the cases either to do the counselling or admit them in the Rehabilitation Centres.
Accordingly, adjacent to the Education Centre, ASSIST proposes to start the screening lab as well to motivate the High Risk Groups to undergo testing so that necessary follow-up measures could be planned based on the results. This will not only enable us to identify the HIV/AIDS cases but also strengthen the preventive and control measures being taken up under this project. ASSIST has residential non-formal vocational training centre, where the adolescent girls are being trained for a period of nine months in medical and lab technology course. As such, it has qualified medical officers, instructors and even the students to perform the tests.
