Social Inequality, AIDS, And Pandemics Are Interrelated: Union Health Secretary

New Delhi: Social inequality, AIDS and pandemics are interrelated, said Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan here on Wednesday (December 1). While speaking on World AIDS Day on the theme “End Inequalities, End AIDS, End Pandemics”, Mr Bhushan said, “Because there is inequality in the society, there is spread of diseases and because there is a disease, inequalities exist in the society. They are interrelated. If we reduce the inequalities in the society, access to healthcare, means to social and economic livelihood increases and thereby severity of disease decreases.”

If there is the easy availability of medicines, testing and counselling then we can control the spread of disease, he said.

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“We should not forget that we have covered a very long journey. The National AIDS Control programme started in the country in 1992, at that time the efforts were in their infancy. Today, the programme’s structure has taken deep roots,” said the senior bureaucrat.

Today we have over 34,000 testing centres, over 1,900 antiretroviral treatment centres & over 1,400 targeted interventions going on in the country. They have an impact on more than 4 million high-risk groups & target populations, said the Union health secretary.

Mr Bhushan added, “We should not only fight HIV/AIDS but also end the epidemic by 2030.”

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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity,  that is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.