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B. Shadrach
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The UNAIDS progress report on HIV/AIDS in December 2004 mentions that the fight against the dreaded disease is not only managed well, but can also lead to the strengthening of both HIV prevention programme and the broader health system. However, a number of key Foundations engaged in the fight against HIV/AIDS are predicting a five fold increase in the figure of those living with HIV in South Asia by 2010 reaching a figure of almost 30 million. It is two decades since the first national committee on AIDS was set up in India following the first registered case in Chennai. Now after two decades the region has witnessed over 6 million people living with AIDS, yet, it is not alarming to many, especially to those who frame health policies of these nations. Even after a recent study focussed on the socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS reinstated the fact that the way the disease was spreading its cumulative effect would certainly impact the regional economy, the local economy and the national economy.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic is understood to be someone elses problem in South Asia. It is understood to be a problem for the sex workers, migrant labourers and truck drivers while the rest of the population is understood to be safe and least targeted in any of the major interventions witnessed in the region. It is evident when one looks at the key building blocks of the famous 3 by 5 initiative, which concentrates only on the affected. It is only now people like Drew Altman, Bill Gates and Kofi Annan recognise that the media, which has thus far been an underutilised force in the fight against the HIV/AIDS, can now play a huge role in breaking the silence and mobilising the society to confront the epidemic. It is Avahan indeed a clarion call to summoning all those involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS to concentrate on prevention, communications, advocacy, capacity building and monitoring and evaluation. The new media tools such as the information and communication technologies (ICTs) have a role to play here.
Again, it is not only that the role of ICTs is less understood but it is left to those ICT enthusiasts to herald the benefits these tools could bring about. Recent experiments have demonstrated how health workers could perform remote consultations and diagnosis, access medical information and coordinate research activities using both traditional and new ICTs ranging from mobile telephones to community and satellite radio-sets. Policymakers are slowly and reluctantly beginning to understand the usefulness of ICT-enabled management information systems that could track drug delivery, coordinate shipments, track trends in utilisation of services, map behavioural changes in a dynamic manner, and permit appraisal of processes, inputs and outputs.
The less importance to ICTs would mean, less emphasis on monitoring and management of HIV/AIDS, less emphasis on drug distribution systems, lost opportunity to peer-peer networking of those living with HIV/AIDS and less linkages between the carers and those who need care. ICTs can help build trust among the policymakers and other stakeholders making the expenditure plan transparent. The second National AIDS Control Programme (NACP-II) has a kitty of over INR 20 billion needs to be spent efficiently though.
It is with that call that the new ICTs need to be mainstreamed in order to see the region change the way the diseases is contained and managed, we bring this edition of Mainstreaming ICTs for your reading.
B. Shadrach
Editor-in-Chief
basheerhamad.shadrach@oneworld.net
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