Friday, 05 May 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Uttarakhand government has sought the help of the centre in its campaign to make the State free from substance abuse. A team of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) is on a three-day visit to the State and on Thursday its members inspected the activities of the Uttarakhand State AIDS Control Society (USACS) in Dehradun and Haridwar. Requesting central assistance, the health secretary R Rajesh Kumar told the NACO team that Uttarakhand has prepared a comprehensive plan against the menace of drug abuse. He said programmes on a war scale are being held in different parts of the State to make Uttarakhand free from drugs and AIDS. He claimed that the awareness campaign against drugs has yielded good results in Uttarakhand.
The secretary said that a Sampurna Suraksha Kendra would be set up in the district (Coronation) hospital Dehradun and it would act as a single window system. The treatment of HIV, hepatitis, TB and other serious diseases would be done at this centre. It would also hold counselling sessions with the patients. Kumar said that the NACO has given its acceptance for setting up the centre. He further informed that an awareness campaign against drugs and HIV would be held in all the Jails of the State. Apart from creating awareness, screening of the inmates would be done for AIDS in these programmes. The team of NACO inspected the OST centres in Dehradun and Haridwar centres. It also visited the district Jail and district TB hospital in Haridwar. The team directed that counselling of the drug addicts and AIDS patients should be done. The NACO team included the deputy director of health, government of India, Dr Bhawani Singh, national advisor of Health department Parul Karthik and others.
