02 Feb 2012|Noida | Amity University Campus, Sector-125 Noida
Amity Business School conducts HIV/AIDS awareness campaign as part of the Amity Human Values Quarter
HIV / AIDS is the most dreaded disease and it is estimated that atleast 33.4 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS worldwide and in India 2.5 million are estimated to be infected with this disease. In order to spread awareness amongst students, Amity Business School in association with PepsiCo conducted HIV/AIDS awareness campaign at Amity University Campus, Sector – 125 Noida. This campaign is organized as a part of three month Amity Human Value Quarter which is being celebrated from January 28, 2012 to April 27, 2012.
Mr. Sanjay Gupta, Head – Food Exports, PepsiCo, Ms. Preeti Aggarwal, Director, Catalyst, Ms. Natasha, Head – HR (Food), PepsiCo were present during the awareness campaign.
While addressing the students, Mr. Sanjay Gupta, Head – Food Exports, PepsiCo said that students should spread the information to others regarding HIV/AIDS. Mr. Gupta said that HIV infection affects people in the most productive age of 15-49 years and the infection gets unnoticed for several years. HIV infection can be spread in 4 ways i.e. unprotected sex, infected blood transfusion, sharing of infected needles / syringes and from infected mother to baby. Once a person is indulged in any of the four ways, it takes atleast 3-12 weeks to be tested positive for HIV. A HIV Infected person may take 10-12 years to reach the stage of AIDS, therefore it is not unlikely that if a person is HIV infected, he will also be suffering from AIDS. Mr Gupta said that there are some major signs for indicating HIV infection like Weight loss of more than 10%, fever for more than one month, diarrhea for more than one month, long lasting swelling of lymph glands etc.
While making a power point presentation, Ms. Natasha, Head – HR (Food), PepsiCo said that there is a general policy in most of the companies to take medical test of each person before recruitment. If a person is found suffering from HIV infection than inspite of his merit he is not given job or if working, he is sacked immediately. A HIV / AIDS infected worker generally faces stigma, discrimination, loss of employment etc. This type of discrimination is not fair. Ms. Natasha said that PepsiCo follows unbiased attitude and has equal opportunity to every person.
Short videos of the interviews of HIV infected persons, who have fought the long and lone battle of HIV/AIDS, were also shown during the program.
The talk was followed by interactive question where students asked several questions related to HIV/ AIDS, Sexual Transmitted Diseases etc.
Ms. Asmita Kachroo, Head – CRC, ABS, Dr. Jaya Yadav, Coordinator – Amity Human Value Quarter were present during the occasion.