EVENTS
| *
Organized two training programmes on HIV/AIDS prevention for the Delhi
University College students in December1998 and January 1999'.
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* Organized an AIDS awareness programme and Blood Donation Camp at BITS, Pilani (Rajasthan) in March - April 1999. |
| * IEC material in the form of books and booklets is being produced |
| * `Shubchintak' AIDS helpline - drawing a very good response from public. |
| * Traning Programmes on HIV/AIDS prevention will be held in the coming months for the |
| - Workers of NGOs |
| - Workers of NGOs |
| - Teachers |
- Secondary School Students * Educational Materoa; os being planned on STDs, use of condoms etc. |
When you need help...
The Experience of the AIDS Helpline of AIIMS New Delhi
The AIIMS experiene In November 1998, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi established an AIDS Education & Training Cell to create awareness about HIV/AIDS in the General Public. On of the schemes Iaunched to achieve this foal was a free telephone help line called `Shubhchintak' (`well-wisher' in Hindi). This hep line launched on December 1998 has answered the queries of many callers. `Shubhchintak' works from 10:00am to 5:00pm on all working days from Monday to Friday and on Saturdays from 10:00am to 1:00pm. All calls are handled by person with counselling skills. The hame, age, gender, address, phone number or any other identification of the caller is not asked for so that the caller remains totally anonymous and can ask any type of question without fear or anxiety. The significant difference between this help line and others is that it is interactive and caters to the specific personal problems of the callers.On an average `Shubhchintak' recives about 32 calls per day. However, whenever a writ-up appears in the press or an announcement is made on All India Radio, the number of calls go up on that day and a few days thereafter. It is found that 87.9% of the callers are males while 12.1% are females. Though we cannot comment on the age of the callers, they seemed to by young persons (approximately 15-30 years age group). Some of the questions asked by the calllers:
| Writhe is AIDS? What causes AIDS? |
| Difference between HIV & AIDS? |
| Modes of transmission |
| Windows period |
| Methods to prevent AIDS? |
There were also questions regarding the blood test for HIV (such as when and where it could be done, cost of the test, time taken for reporting and reliability of FLISAtest;) some of the callers were curious to know whether `oral sec' causes AIDS. Many callers asked about the risk of getting HIV/AIDS quoting personal experiences and problems. The AIIMS experience points out that given an opportunity the grneral punblic, especially young people, want to know about HIV/AIDS and opportunityes nedd to be created to address these queries in a scientific and cost effective manner. In this situation interactive help line have an Important role to play. (Dr Bir Singh, Additional Professor & Dr V.P. Reddaiah, Professor & Head, Centre for Community Midicine, AIIMS, New Delhi)
(Health Dialogue Issue No. 16. June 1999).