#16 | @80 wpm | Progressive Magazine | April 2026 | Shorthand Dictations | 840 words

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]Get ready. 10 seconds.

[00:00:06]5 seconds.

[00:00:09]Start. Since independence, India has acquired considerable experience in prevention and control of both communicable and non-communicable diseases.

[00:00:25]While we could successfully eradicate many deadly diseases like smallpox and gina warm and are on the verge of eliminating leprosy, we are now facing the problem of resurgence of serious communicable diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.

[00:00:54]While we thought that we had eradicated malaria from the country, it has now come back in a highly viralent form in the country. It has now come back in a highly viralent form in some areas here and almost fatal.

[00:01:20]So far as TB is concerned, roughly about 15 million Indians are infected with the disease and every year more than 1.2 million are getting added. Hundreds of thousands die of TB each year. However, the most serious public health challenge that the country is facing today is of HIV, AIDS that is just a decade old in this country.

[00:02:02]AIDS is a global problem sadly with a strong Indian dimension.

[00:02:10]More than 20 out of 100 adults in Africa face death in the next 10 years. In one African country, population growth will halt in the next 4 years.

[00:02:30]In another African country, life expectancy will drop from a high of 61 years in 1990 to only 41 years next year. What is happening? What is happening is being compared by senior United Nations public health officials to the fatal plague that wiped out onethird of Europe's population in the 14th century according to the South African government 14% of their population of 32 million is infected with HIV which leads to AIDS and death and 1,500 more are daily diagnosed with the virus.

[00:03:46]President Nelson Mandela has earlier this month said, "Although AIDS has been a part of our lives for 15 years or more, we have kept silent about its true presence in our midst, adding, we have too often spoken of it as someone else's problem.

[00:04:24]That is South Africa's situation. And there is President Mandela's recent statement.

[00:04:34]I have taken the liberty of referring to Africa and quoting President Mandela because our situation is also alarming and could become frightening and we too speak of AIDS as someone else's problem.

[00:05:01]Look at our own AIDS situation.

[00:05:06]The health ministry puts the figure of HIV infections in the country till now at to 4 million. Because HIV affliction take till 10 years in healthy circumstances to blow into AIDS and AIDS patients live till two more years. People do not take the virus seriously.

[00:05:44]In unhealthy conditions, the time frame is much shorter. Another reason why people do not take AIDS seriously is because it is diabolical.

[00:06:01]One comes to know one is HIV positive only if one goes and takes an HIV test.

[00:06:13]The ALISA test. In absence of the ALISA test, one could be carrying the virus for six or 7 years and knowing about it and passing it on to one's spouse and the wife to the newborn through breastfeeding without any of them knowing.

[00:06:43]This is the crux of the problem.

[00:06:47]However, these are just figures and figures do not convey the human tragedy that is taking place in many parts of the country today. A man or a woman has diarrhea or fever or weakness that medicines fail to subdue.

[00:07:17]He or she goes to a doctor. The doctor suggests a blood test. The person tests HIV positive.

[00:07:28]The test is repeated.

[00:07:31]The HIV infection is confirmed.

[00:07:36]However, it is too late. The person's partner is already infected and the couple's child is also infected from breastfeeding.

[00:07:50]The first infection is almost 5 to 6 years old.

[00:07:57]There is no cure.

[00:07:59]All three must die and I know they die.

[00:08:04]How many such nuclear families are already condemned to death in our own country today?

[00:08:15]How many will be condemned to death in the next decade?

[00:08:22]When HIV appeared in India in 1986, everybody thought that it is a western disease that will be contacted only by sex workers in red light areas, gay men, and injecting drug users. The consequences of that short-sighted view are now upon us. In India, sexually transmitted diseases are already a serious problem. And what is significant? Nearly 40% of such diseases occur in the middle class segment of our population.

[00:09:14]More significantly, persons already suffering from sexually transmitted diseases are more prone to HIV infections.

[00:09:29]What will this catastrophe mean to business and industry in say the year 2005?

[00:09:41]Since the HIV AIDS affliction is mostly in the productive age group of 18 to 40.

[00:09:53]This could have serious consequences for our economy.

[00:10:00]Already half the new infections in India are in this age group. Business and industry must take a hard and urgent note of this reality and act to increase awareness about AIDS and spread the message around.