Twenty people are getting infected by the deadly HIV/ AIDS on an average per month in Odisha. During the first 10 months of last year, 2,037 HIV patients were identified. This is despite massive awareness programmes launched across the State about the disease.
While 311 HIV patients had been identified in the year 2002, by the end of 2015 the figure jumped up to 2,276. The number of the patients is rising every year. In 2003, it was 570 while the number rose to 747 in 2005. Experts have raised a question over the officially-recorded increase in patients’ number in the State.
last year, Ganjam district topped the list of new infected persons and mortality rate in the State with 595 persons followed by Sambalpur (187), Khurda (166) and Balangir (103). In 2002, maximum infected persons were identified from six districts. While 55 men and 77 women were infected by HIV in Ganjam district in 2002. During the year 2003, 150 persons were infected by HIV out of which 102 were men. The people have been infected by the virus in almost all the districts of the State in the past 13 years.
Kandhamal is the only district where not a single woman or child has been infected by HIV. Only six men were infected by the disease. However, the HIV mortality rate has declined during the period. While 74 patients died in 2002, the death toll was 168 in 2004, 162 in 2005, 156 in 2008, 140 in 2006 and 214 in 2009. By the end of October 2015, 74 HIV infected persons have died, reports said.