Agencies

Bangalore, Sep 2: The move to legalise homosexuality is aimed at combating HIV-AIDS by enabling more gays to seek counselling and medical attention, Union Health and Family Welfare Anbumani Ramadoss said.

He said that scrapping of Section 377 of IPC which ‘criminalises’ men having sex with men (MSM) would help homosexuals to come out of the closet.

It would also enable social workers, health workers and doctors reach out to the affected without fear of legal impediments, Ramadoss told reporters during the inauguration of an additional facility at NIMHANS.

The major cause of HIV transmission is currently the sexual route (86 per cent) with infected blood accounting for 1.8 per cent and mother-to-child four per cent of the spread of the disease. Three per cent of transmission occurs through use of injectible drugs.

With MSM being considered an offence, many homosexuals choose to remain silent, making even medical professionals wary, since they are liable to be prosecuted if they do not report the offence, the Minister said.

A survey estimated that there are 2.45 million MSM with 10 per cent highly vulnerable as they have sex on 15 to 20 days in a month, he said.

He said the national HIV-AIDS programme had helped create awareness and produce the desired effect. The prevalence of the infection has come down from 0.91 per cent to 0.34 per cent and the estimated 5.2 million cases have come down to 2.3 million this year. There are 174 HIV-AIDS centres.

On the other projects of the government, Ramadoss said there are plans to expand telemedicine footprints. Two telemedicine projects are currently on in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

Once these projects are successful, they could be expanded in other places as well, he said.

On the National Rural Health Mission, Dr Ramadoss said that the programme had transformed the way medical care and services had been delivered to rural areas. The programme had received international accolades.

He said the national emergency and trauma programme has received Rs 750 crore approval from the government and aims at providing emergency services at all National Highways.

It is hoped that by 2010-2011, dialing of 108 emergency service could help deploy an ambulance at the doorstep, he said.

Referring to NIMHANs, he said that around seven per cent of the population suffer from some form of mental illness and 1.25 to two per cent, from chronic mental disorders. However, manpower shortage was a major problem facing the industry.

Currently there are just 3300 psychiatrists spread over six cities in the country.

Acknowledging the contribution of NIMHANS, he hoped that the deemed university would become a centre for excellence if a legislation was passed.