New AIDS prevention tool on anvil

Got AIDS, don't know

It is World's AIDS Day on December 1 and around 40 million people today are living with AIDS, the world's deadliest contagious disease. India now holds the second largest absolute number of HIV positive cases in the world, following South Africa, which has 5.5 million HIV infected people.

A staggering 5.21 million adults in India are living with HIV, says the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO). Of these over 60 per cent are males. Astonishingly, more than 57 per cent of the infected people are of rural background. And the greatest worry is that about 90 per cent of the infected people do not know that they are carrying the deadly virus.

Besides that, the number of AIDS cases also reflects the dark side of the reality. Since 1986 when AIDS was first reported in India, 124995 cases of the disease have been recorded till date. And heterosexual contact by far remains the main reason of the spread of the infection. Over 85 per cent of these cases are due to unsafe sexual intercourse, according to estimates.

Perinatal transmission is the reason for 3.8 per cent of these cases. Contaminated blood transfusions and unsterilised needles and syringes account for the rest.

Though the overall national prevalence is low, Manipur, Nagaland, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and certain districts in Goa and Gujarat have reported high prevalence of AIDS. However, with the disease spreading fast, the number of the states on the NACO watch list has now risen to 20.

 

Source: CNN-IBN