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"UNAIDS chief meets India reps on AIDS
prevention"
The
Star (www.thestar.com.my)
(20/11/05)
GAUHATI (India): The chief of the United Nations AIDS prevention programme
was meeting the elected heads of India's remote northeastern states
yesterday to discuss ways to combat the disease in the region, where heroin
abuse and sharing of needles among intravenous drug addicts is high.
UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot said he planned to meet lawmakers and
chief ministers from seven northeastern Indian states to discuss how the UN
agency could help them fight AIDS.
Piot arrived on Friday in Gauhati, the capital of Assam, the biggest of the
seven states.
The visit follows an announcement by Australia that it will provide A$10mil
(RM27.7mil) through UNAIDS for HIV prevention work in India's northeast.
According to government estimates, India has more than five million
HIV-infected people and prevalence of the disease is considered high in two
of the northeastern states – Manipur and Nagaland. The sparsely-populated
northeast region is estimated to have about 100,000 HIV-infected people. —
AP
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