IDEAS India Opens HIV/AIDS Hospital

09/02/09

The battle against HIV/AIDS in India now has a new ally – the recently opened HIV/AIDS hospital run by IDEAS national partners in South India.

For Immediate Release

September, 2009 - INDIA The battle against HIV/AIDS in India now has a new ally – the recently opened HIV/AIDS hospital run by IDEAS national partners in South India.

IDEAS India has had a huge burden for people living with HIV/AIDS in South India for the last decade.  Until now, only emotional counseling, sporadic medical consultation and a small amount of donated pharmaceutical goods were available to the thousands of patients who frequented the project in the rural town of Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu. Local Indian staff members faithfully ran this encouraging program, but longed for the day when additional clinical and curative solutions would be available.

After several years of fund raising and subsequent construction, IDEAS India was thrilled to see the inauguration of the Dharmapuri HIV/AIDS hospital in August 2009.  The hospital will offer specialized medical care seven days a week.  With nine rooms, a permanent medical staff, and separate wards for male and female inpatients, the hospital will make the project more effective in treating the physical symptoms and ailments related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

IDEAS India worker Terri Rider is involved in the training of Health Workers who will serve the Dharmapuri community, as well as offering management to the staff of the new Mobile Clinics to be dispatched to the villages surrounding the hospital to offer off-site curative services, as well as transport the most needy patients to the hospital free of charge.

IDEAS India Team Leader Leah Kadwell remarked, “After raising funds for this project for nearly five years, it was a joy to see the construction finished and the first patients walk through the clinic doors.  The quantifiable transforming impact on both physical and emotional needs in the community because of this new center will be remarkable.”

Plans are still underway for a permanent women’s housing facility to accompany this hospital.