NSS wing of the Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU) organized seminar on ‘Drug Abuse and AIDS” at silver Jubilee Auditorium. Two top city doctors enlightened the students with their expert views and suggestions. Organized under the aegis of Red ribbon club , the session had as many as 90 participants including the students of College of Fisheries and College of Dairy Science and Technology.
NSS Coordinator Nidhi Sharma welcomed the team of doctors Dr Ashwani Malhotra of Mohan Dai Oswal Hospital and Dr Pallavi Arora , Research Coordinator in Neurology department of DMCH and exhorted the students to vow against the use of drugs .
Talking about HIV AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases Dr Malhotra said use of infected syringes and insincerity with life partner are the direct invitation to the dreaded disease called AIDS. “A larger section of society, which is more prone to spread of the disease is unaware that medicine to these problems are given free of cost and tests are also done free and medicine can be sent to patients place also. He urged the NSS volunteers to spread the information. Dr Malhotra maintained that Drug menace was emerging as a widespread global socio-economic problem with widespread ramifications thus ultimately leading to the family discords, accidents, suicides, murders and other criminal activities.
Addressing the students, Dr Arora said that in present context of lifestyle non-communicable diseases have been found to be “leading killer” with 80 percent of the deaths being reported in low and middle income countries . Further, she added, the worrisome factor is the fact that of these 80 percent deaths more than 9 million deaths have been reported before age of sixty.
She quoted health departments survey report suggesting that out of a total of 21 lakh cases of AIDS, Punjab has 60,000 HIV infected patients. Ludhiana district alone has recorded spread of disease in as many as 6,000 cases with 90 percent of them getting infection due to unprotected sex.
