About 2,300 educational programmes on AIDS and prevention will be conducted at schools in Kurunegala and Puttalam in November and December.
Schoolchildren countrywide need to be educated on sexually transmitted diseases, Kurunegala District Senior Director of Education W. M. Balasooriya said.
He was speaking at a meeting of school heads in Kurunegala at the Wariyapola Teachers’ Resources Centre in Kurunegala, yesterday.
In 2017, about 285 HIV positive patients were detected from different parts of the country. About six new AIDS patients are detected every week at present. The Health Ministry has estimated that around 4,200 HIV positive patients exist in the island now. These patients are between 15 to 42 years.
Blood tests need to be carried out to identify HIV patients. The government’s aim is to wipe out HIV/AIDS from Sri Lanka by 2025.
Balasooriya called on all school heads and parents in the North Western Province to assist the Health Ministry and Education Ministry to implement the educational programmes.
About 760 PHIs and 140 resource personnel would be deployed to carry out the programmes, he said.
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