HIV cases up in jails, Assam State AIDS Control Society detected 20,085: Anurag Goel

STAFF REPORTER 

GUWAHATI: Principal Secretary, Health Department, Anurag Goel said that the Assam State AIDS Control Society (ASACS) detected a total of 20,085 has HIV in Assam till June 2021 since 2002. The Kamrup (M) district has the highest number of 6,888, followed by 4609 in Cachar and 1245 in Dibrugarh, he said.

The Assam State AIDS Control Society (ASACS) conducted one-day media advocacy on HIV (Prevention & Control) Act, 2017 and HIV programme implementation here today.

Goel said, "Recently due to index testing of the High-Risk Group (HRG) of people, an increase in the HIV cases has been reported in districts like Morigaon, Nagaon and Nalbari. Although in the aforesaid districts, there were earlier no high HIV prevalence, index testing of the prison inmates (especially the injecting drug users) done in the jails, the cases have increased."

Elaborating on index testing, he said, "Index testing is done through contact tracings of the partners with whom the prison inmates indulged in high-risk behaviour when they were outside the jails. This has resulted in an increase of HIV cases and ASACS has taken initiatives to ensure that maximum testing is done so there is prompt detection and treatment of those who are detected HIV positive."

He further said that Assam has been able to reduce new HIV infections by 22 per cent.

Enlightening the media persons on the HIV programme implementation in the state, Rajib Sarma, Assistant Director (Publicity) in his presentation highlighted the implementation of HIV programme in the state through different components that deal with HIV prevention, control and treatment.

Also Read: Assam: HIV Positive Cases Rising Alarmingly in Morigaon, 27 Cases Detected in 17 Days

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