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opportunities for excellence “Educational courses are designed to create a resource pool of experts with the benefit of flexibility and technology through collaboration” By Dr Biplab Jamatia
S
ince 1994, Indira Gandhi national Open University (IGNOU) has been steering constantly to provide the best of the medical courses through its School of Health Sciences (SOHS). So far, a lot of collaborations have been initiated by SOHS. Few of them include National and International organisations like World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF, UNDP, Ministry of Health and Family welfare (MoHFW), Ministry of Environment and Forest, GOI, National Board Examination(NBE), Dental Council of India, Narayana Hrudalaya and many more. Also, SOHS has been the pioneer in delivering professional post graduate medical courses through open and distance learning.
PG Diploma Programme in HIV Medicine Demographically the second largest country
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in the world, India has also the third largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS. Available evidence on HIV epidemic in India shows a stable trend at national level. As per the provisional HIV estimate of 200809, there are an estimated 22.7 lakh people living with HIV/AIDS in India. The HIV prevalence rate in the country is 0.29 percent (2008-09) and most of the infections occur through heterosexual route of transmission. However in the north-eastern region, injecting drug use is the major cause for the epidemic spread. The primary drivers of HIV epidemic in India are unprotected paid sex, unprotected sex between men and injecting drug use. Heterosexual route of transmission accounts for 87 percent of HIV cases detected. In 1992, the Government launched its first National AIDS Control Programme (NACP-I) with the initiative of International
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Development Association (IDA) Credit of USD 84 million and demonstrated its commitment to combat the infection. NACP-I was implemented during 1992-1999 with an objective to slow down the spread of HIV infections so as to reduce morbidity, mortality and impact of HIV epidemic in the country. To strengthen the management capacity, a National AIDS Control Board (NACB) was constituted and an autonomous National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) was set up to implement the project. During the initial years, the major focus of attention was on prevention activities, followed by “care and support” of infected individuals, particularly those suffering from opportunistic infections (OIs). Over the past decade, there has been a tremendous increase in our understanding of molecular biology and the viral structure and pathogenesis of the disease. This knowledge has