2-day meet on AIDS research from today
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JAN 12
A conference on translational research in HIV/AIDS in the capital city at Taj Vivanta on January 13 and 14 will focus on how best this research could be made useful in patient care of those living with the disease.
Organised by the University of South Florida-USA, National Aids Research Institute (NARI)-Pune and Community Research Foundation-Goa, the event will see the participation of experts from India and abroad whose research has figured in international journals.
Giving a broad outline of translational research at a press conference on Wednesday, Director NARI Dr Ramesh Paranjape observed it was all about getting the latest updates of advances in the field and how best the same could reach the infected people.
Dr Paranjape said the conference has been organised in an effort to see if it could offer a platform for collaboration and forming networks to see that the research in the field percolates down to those in need of it.
He said because of the high level of awareness the number of HIV infections were on the decline. Even though there are many medicines to control the disease there is no cure, he stated.
Dr Shyam S Mohapatra from the University of South Florida said they were in many collaborative programmes in India and the main aim of this conference would be to start or build a dialogue towards further collaborations. There are 2.3 million people in India living with HIV and many of these don’t receive treatment.
Project Director Goa State Aids Control Society Dr Pradeep Padwal said even in Goa HIV cases were on the decline. NGOs are creating awareness, but there is still work to be done as far as unprotected sex was confirmed, he stated.
Padwal said Goa could adopt what NGOs in Maharashtra were doing. They are encouraging marriages between HIV-positive people so that the disease doesn’t spread. Medical science has done so much advances that children born out of these marriages can be HIV-negative and normal, he mentioned.
