Confirming this, general secretary of the Indian Health Organisation (IHO) and anti-AIDS crusader Dr I S Gilada said the feeling of discrimination starts from the doctor himself, when he keeps a distance between him and the AIDS patient. The patient notices the change in the doctor's behaviour the moment he is tested positive for HIV infection, he pointed out. Even major private hospitals have their own way of discriminating against HIV infected patients, he said. A box of masks is kept outside the room of an infected patient to identify one, or a separate bed is kept in a ward for an AIDS patient, he explained.

However, according to Dr Gilada, there appears to be some change in the attitudes of the private sector, where in the past an employee was removed just because he was HIV positive. Severalcompanies have asked their employees to undergo voluntary testing, and then it is up to the individual to reveal whether he is infected, he explained. Even among college students, there seems to be a remarkable acceptance of persons suffering from the disease, the doctor said. In one case, when it was found that a college student was HIV positive, he was visited by nearly 100 of his college friends, he said. This opportunity was used by the victim to caution his friends on visits to red-light areas and on the dangers of having multiple sex partners.

However, this little progress is limited only to Mumbai, and the blot attached to AIDS continues to affect persons in other parts of the country, he pointed out. In one case, an HIV infected woman was burnt alive in Chennai, while in Punjab, an entire village was declared infected when one person from the village tested positive, he said.

Later, Dr Gilada addressed Sydenham College students on the modes of transmission of HIV and precautions that need to betaken. He said the best way is to avoid unsafe sex, and one should be careful and informed on this subject.

But the good news is that the number of persons visiting red-light areas has lessened, and proportionately, that of college students has also reduced, he said. Even the rate of infection has dropped and has remained static for some time, he added. And questions that are asked on the AIDS hotline (3719020) are more in the nature of casual sex and not about sexual intercourse, he pointed out.