U. begins look at issue of AIDS in India

Building on the success of the year-old AIDS in Africa program, the Penn Center for AIDS and HIV Research is sponsoring a similar forum designed to educate the community about issues involving the epidemic on the Indian subcontinent. Although it receives less media attention than sub-Saharan Africa, India has been identified as the country whose AIDS population will be the world's largest by 2002. At the program's first meeting, held last Wednesday at the University Museum, about a dozen members of the University community offered ideas for future discussion. The group stressed an interdisciplinary approach so that the complex issues of AIDS could be addressed on a variety of levels. "After last year's AIDS in Africa, India was naturally the next place to focus on what can be done by the Penn community in dealing with the AIDS problem," said Tonya Taylor, a fourth-year graduate student in the School of Arts and Sciences and organizer of the meeting. The casual atmosphere, replete with catered Indian delicacies, encouraged participants to offer their opinions on what they considered important issues pertaining to AIDS in India. James Hoxie, director of the Penn Center for AIDS and HIV Research, called the program "an umbrella under which to draw people from around the campus to deal with AIDS issues together." He said that various Penn-affiliated medical institutions involved with AIDS research -- such as the Wistar Institute and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- are interested in working with the Penn community on the social, political and human dimensions that are an integral part of the AIDS dilemma. "Being an Indian and aspiring to be a doctor, I wanted to understand the full scope of the AIDS problem beyond the biological aspect and into the social context that AIDS affects," said Amit Saindane, a first year Medical School student. "We need leaders," said Taylor, who has headed AIDS in Africa for the past year. She especially called on the undergraduate community to get involved and organize the meetings, in which the group plans to encompass sexual issues, education, politics and the economy in a context specific to Indian culture. "The discussion needs to be culturally specific? to address the [AIDS] issue," Taylor said. Surprised by last year's success of AIDS in Africa, which was organized on short notice, members of the program hope that better organization will make this year's AIDS in Africa and its offshoot, AIDS in India, even more successful than last year. "[AIDS in India] is an important issue that can only be understood from an interdisciplinary approach," said Tom Chacko, a second year Penn Medical student. "The success of the program depends on the input of a lot of different perspectives."