CM Siddaramaiah envisions AIDS-free India, K'taka in 5 years

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that India and Karnataka should work towards being AIDS (Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome) free in the next five years, adding that it was everyone’s responsibility to ensure the same.

The CM made the comments after inaugurating the World AIDS Day 2023 and 25th Silver Jubilee programme organised at the Banquet Hall Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on Friday.

He said that the original goal was to achieve an AIDS free India by 2020 but that goal did not come to pass. However, the rate at which the disease affected people has decreased, he added.

“There was a slogan to bring the number of AIDS affected to zero by 2015-2020. But this goal has not been achieved. Achieving this goal is the responsibility of both the health department and society,” Siddaramaiah said.

“Today is World AIDS Day. It is everyone’s responsibility to prevent this epidemic. The disease was discovered in India in 1986 and in Karnataka during 1987. In recent days the number of HIV patients and its prevalence is decreasing. This is a good development. Awareness should be created among the people and the youth to build a HIV free society,” he added.

Siddaramaiah pointed out that AIDs can’t spread by merely talking or shaking hands with an infected person and that such misconceptions still prevail.

He said that he’d met with a Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus (HIV) positive person who had lived with the condition for 26 years and had even gotten an angioplasty done, adding that it was possible to live with the virus.