Out of the total 56,975 HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) ‘positive’ cases in Punjab during past decade, one-fourth is in the holy city of Amritsar.
With 14,309 HIV-positive cases, the border district of Amritsar is topping the chart in the state. Jalandhar and another border district Tarn Taran recorded 5,916 (10 percent) and 2,235 (four percent) positive cases, respectively, across the state.
The Mohali district has finished at the bottom with 706 HIV-positive cases, out of the total 1,90,685 reported with a HIV positivity of 0.37 percent, against the state’s figure of 1.33 percent.
The revelations were made following the latest data, ranging from 2008 to March 2017, released by the Punjab State AIDS Control Society (PSACS). In Punjab, total 42,81,062 cases of HIV has been reported, out of which, 56,975 has been tested positive.
Out of total 5,53,549 HIV cases reported in Amritsar district in the past decade, 25 percent has been tested positive. In Jalandhar, total of 2,66,665 HIV cases has been reported, while in Tarn Taran, the number stood at 1,28,779.
The HIV positivity rate in these districts stood at 2.58 percent in Amritsar, 2.22 percent in Jalandhar and 1.74 percent in Tarn Taran.
On one hand where the state is facing the ever-increasing drug menace, it was also caught in the lethal tentacles of AIDS owing to “use of unsafe methods” for taking drugs. With the increasing number of drug addicts in the state, the IDU (injected drug users) mode of HIV transmission has increased exponentially.
For the “doped” Punjab, the state government has set up 59 targeted intervention projects, out of which 21 are exclusively targeting only the IDUs.
“In Punjab, major problem is that of IDUs as HIV is highly transmissible through sharing of needles and other injecting equipment and that is why at present maximum number of TI projects are dedicated to IDUs exclusively with the help of the NGOs,” a senior official of the Punjab State AIDS Control Society (PSACS) told The Pioneer.
With the State Government targeting 11450 IDUs for 2017-18, it has achieved 106 percent coverage by covering 12169 IDUs so far.
Notwithstanding the government’s efforts to save Punjab from the cobweb of deadly disease, there is a dire need to inject more efforts and transmit additional resources to be immune to the malady of HIV-AIDS.
For, nothing less than 6081 persons have already succumbed to this lethal malady since 2008.
The official said that Jalandhar, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, with Patiala and Faridkot were the most affected areas for Jalandhar, Amritsar, ludhiana, being the industrial hubs, and with a large number of migrant labourers residing there far away from their families drew them to indulge in unsafe sexual inter-course with female sex workers, resulting in possible increase in HIV positive cases.
Border districts of Amritsar and Tarn Taran also have many people affected by drugs which has also emerged out as a major challenge to check the spreading of HIV, he added.