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Three northeastern States emerge as new HIV hotspots
Why in the news ?
- According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare the northeastern states- Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura have emerged as the new hotspots for HIV.
Details
- The Health Ministry attributed the reason for the rise in the incidence of HIV in the three northeastern States to the high risk behaviour of Injecting Drug Users (IDUs), and unsafe sexual practices.
- In four sites in Mizoram and one in Tripura, HIV prevalence was higher among IDUs, which for the rest of the country is 6.3%.
- At least in three places at Aizwal, Champhai and Kolasib, the prevalence of HIV in IDUs was 37.44%, 33.06% and 38.14% respectively.
- In the case of pregnant women visiting antenatal clinics (ANC), six centres in Mizoram, two in Meghalaya and one in Tripura recorded HIV prevalence of more than 1%, compared with HIV prevalence of 0.28% among pregnant women visiting ANCs in other places in India surveyed in December 2017.
- Experts from National AIDS Research Institute (NARI), said that the discussion on HIV prevalence has to be taken to the districts.
HSS data
- HIV Sentinel Surveillance (HSS), a biennial study conducted by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), is one of the largest regular studies in the world dealing with HIV in high risk groups of the population.
- The HSS had referred that HIV prevalence in the context ACs in the northeastern States of Mizoram (1.19%), Nagaland (0.82%), Meghalaya (0.73%), Tripura (0.56%) and Manipur (0.47%) were among the highest.
Source
The Hindu