HIV cases drop by 38% in last 9 yrs

The country reported a 38% drop in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infections across nine years, according to data from National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO).

However, more than half the new cases are concentrated in three states — Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

While Andhra Pradesh (22% remained on top, its followed by Maharashtra (19%) and Gujarat (13%).

Responding to an RTI query, the Basic Services Division of NACO, mentioned that in 2016-17, 184, 047 new HIV patients were identified at Integrated Counselling and Testing Centers (ICTC) as opposed to 299,015 in 2008-09.

Officials revealed that major causes of transmission, as told by patients to the counsellors were heterosexual intercourse (157,666), parent-to-child transmission (8,511), homosexual intercourse (4,051), infected needles and syringes (4,011) and through blood and blood related products (1,487).

Dr Om Srivastava, who heads the Tripple H Clinic at Jaslok Hospital said, “As the cases rise in a particular demography, so does the awareness about the risk factors of HIV infection which leads to a drop in numbers. But the statistics do change with urbanisation and changing demographics of a state or city.”

The prevalence of mother-tochild HIV transmission is at 4% in the country across the country. Officials said the rate might be high because of lack of awareness about the triple drug regime followed by NACO.

A senior pathologist of the state government, also pointed out a need for differentiation of the source of infected needles.“The source of infected needles can either be hospitals or drug addicts. But NACO... isn’t collecting data to differentiate between the two and study the sources, which might result in further spread,” he said.

However, officials from NACO said that the data, being sourced from patients themselves, doesn’t paint an accurate picture.