3% of Blood donors are HIV potive in Vizag

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THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS, VISAKHAPATNAM 10/01/2002 ((Courtesy: FXB INDIA Andhra

Pradesh Branch)

BERHAMPUR, JANUARY 9, 2002: With the list of HIV positive cases touching the 500

mark at the Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapathi (MKCG) Medical College and

hospital here, alarm bells have started ringing the region. The dreaded disease

has already claimed 15 lives and the Dist and count is likely to go up in the

coming years. The latest victim is an under trail prisoner in the Circle jail

here.

According to Red Cross Blood Bank and microbiology Department in the MKCG

Medical College, from about 9,987 blood samples collected between 1994 and 2001

nearly three percent have tested HIV positive. Of the 500 cases detected, 100

are women.

While most of the cases are of the HIV-I strain of the HIV virus, 12 are of

HIV-II strain, which is the more dangerous category and has been detected for

the first time in the state. It has, predictably, started worrying experts. Most

of those detected with this strain are pregnenet women.

Reports said, 17 HIV positive cases were reported in 1994 in the southern

region. Of the victims, 11 were outsiders. However, within a period of seven

years the number of the local persons afflicted with the killer virus has gone

up several folds.

According to experts, most of the cases are imported by migrants labourers of

Ganjam district, which has the dubious distinction of being the procedure of the

biggest migrant labour force in the state. About nine lakh persons from the

district are engaged in menial jobs in various factories and construction sites

in Gujarath and Maharashtra. Unsafe sexual contacts and poor health facilities

in the workplaces have made them prone to AIDS.

LITTLE SCOPE:

Most of the cases are detected in the rural areas, which provide most of the

migrant population, and there is little scope of testing AIDS. This has given

rise to the fear that there might be many more cases of HIV than what is

available now. Reports said while the more educated go for tests voluntarily,

the others are scared about getting wrong publicity following the tests. Again,

a test at a private clinic costs more than one thousand rupees, which may cannot

afford.

Experts have rued the absence of an enactment for compulsory testing of blood

for migrant labourers and other susceptible groups.

The figures available might just be the tip of the iceberg, according to ARUNA,

a voluntary organization working in the area. It pegs the number of infected

persons in Ganjam district at 5,000. During the last two-and - a - half years

ARUNA has counselled 67 PLWHA (People Living With HIV/AIDS) and conducted

several sensitisation camps. The director of the organization Loknath Mishra

informed that the number of the cases are on the rise, particularly among the

migrant youth.

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Dr. Jagdish Harsh ( jharsh@... )

François-Xavier Bagnoud (INDIA) ( www.fxb.org )

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