Nellore: Nellore district in-charge collector A. Md. Imtiaz has advised medical and health wing officials to ensure that every medical student watch a 2004 Hindi film on AIDS, 'Phir Milenge' with Salman Khan and Shilpa Shetty in the lead. He said the film was not received well when it was released but there were accolades from everyone in the medical profession.
Mr Imtiaz was addressing a large gathering of medical officers, nurses, NGO's and HIV patients during a programme held on the occasion of World Aids Day at Nellore on Friday. Referring to18,885 HIV cases reported in the hospitals of Nellore district last year, he underlined the need for taking preventive steps to protect from the deadly virus.
He called upon the NGO's and medical and health officials to organise awareness programmes continuously.Joint Collector-II Venkata Subba Reddy made an appeal to people not to treat HIV affected as untouchables. He said the government is committed to pay special attention to address the need of aids patients.
Medical officers have asked the HIV patients to use full course of drugs to keep the virus under control. Referring to the practice of some patients to stop taking medicines after finding improvement in health condition, they underlined the need to continue the medicines as per the doctors' advice. Leprosy and AIDS nodal officer Dr C. Rama Devi said ART (Antiretroviral Therapy) medicines are made available at free of cost to the patients at district-level hospitals.
