We, who have followed the HIV-Aids problem in this country since 1984, have noticed that a good number of solutions tried have been panicky.

The situation did not improve even after Aids was declared a national catastrophe. The control of the HIV-Aids Programme moved from the Ministry of Health to the Office of the President. No reasons were given. Since then, we have tended to form political, rather than medical, health committees.

There are ways public health problems can be managed by well-trained public health specialists, health officers and support staff.

There seem to be no public health specialists to run these programmes. Yet we have an adequate number who have been overlooked. This has led to a haphazard approach to Aids.

To me, the present approach by the Office of the President is a stop-gap measure. For, after the politicians' wrangle over the committees, the message on HIV-Aids has probably reached only the district level, while the pandemic is spreading like wildfire in the villages.

We only hear of the formation of District Aids Committees, but the message has hardly reached the location, sub-location or village. By the time these messages reach the villages level, the programme will be futile.

I say this because I moved from Mombasa to Hamisi Constituency in July, last year, where some areas, like Serem and Goibei, are seriously affected by Aids. But to date, there has been no HIV-Aids campaign in the area. In fact, nobody seems to care.

Secondly, it appears the baraza/lecture approach is not helping at all. A person-to-person approach needs to be tried. If that is not possible, talking to smaller groups might work. You cannot discuss intimate sexual matters in barazas. This is a matter that should be discussed with well-trained health teams.

The other issue is to tie the HIV-Aids programme to the poverty eradication programme. I strongly believe in the notion that you need to be healthy to work on your shamba; you need to be healthy to borrow money to invest in your business.

In other words, you need to be healthy to eradicate poverty, and not the other way round.

Thus I detest the theory that we need to eradicate poverty to become healthy. Let us move fast and restore the HIV-Aids programmes to the rural areas to avert this looming catastrophe.

The above factors make me feel that the approach of HIV-Aids control programme .

DR T. V. MUGUSIA,

Serem.