West Bengal HIV campaign gets more funds

Rs 43 crore for awareness activities

The popular HIV/AIDS awareness campaign using 'Bula-di' as the central figure has been a success but more needs to be done to make citizens aware of the disease, according to West Bengal's minister of health and family welfare, Pratyush Mukherjee.

WBSAP&CS has received Rs 43 crore for awareness activity, 2.5 times more than the previous year, to adopt a multi-sectoral approach to deal with the problem.

"The total number of HIV cases is on the rise and awareness is low though the 'Bula-di' campaign by West Bengal State AIDS Prevention and Control Society (WBSAP&CS) has borne results," said Mukherjee at a media sensitisation workshop on 'HIV/AIDS' organised by the Press Club, Kolkata.

More and more women between 15-29 years are getting infected by the HIV virus, with 43 per cent of the total HIV affected women being in this age group in Bengal.

HIV infection has surged in the Darjeeling subdivision owing to the needle-sharing habit of injecting drug users (IDU), who comprise around 11.8 per cent of the population.

Kolkata has 46 per cent of the state's detected HIV-infected patients.

S Suresh Kumar, project director of WBSAP&CS, said small campaigns could not yield results.