New Delhi: Amid United Nations' warning that India must act to avoid an Acute Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) catastrophe, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on July 26 said the situation demanded an "effective and undelayed response" with political parties requiring to pay far greater attention to issues of health care than they do now.

Admitting that India's response to the epidemic, affecting nearly four million Indian men, women and children had been "somewhat belated", Vajpayee said, "HIV/AIDS is not only a grave global challenge, it is also a national concern, one that demands effective and undelayed response."

Opening a two-day National Convention of Parliamentary Forum on HIV/AIDS, the Prime Minister lamented that public health issues were not finding their place on the political agenda in the country and said it needed to be reversed.

"In India, issues pertaining to public health do not normally find a place on the nation's political agenda. This is not so in other democracies where, sometimes, even elections are won or lost on the basis of health issues," he said.

Expressing the hope that in India too elected representatives would be more sensitive to public health challenges, he said, "We must recognise that fight against HIV/AIDS is more complex and requires greater courage and commitment.

"It requires leadership that is ready to go to the heart of the problem and is ready even to go against the stream of public opinion."

PTI