Bihar, UP key states in fight against AIDS

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Bihar, UP key states in fight against Aids

(Reuters)

22 July 2005

NEW DELHI — India needs to dramatically scale up the battle against

Aids in its impoverished and densely populated north if it is to

avoid a disastrous spike in HIV infections, the country's Aids

control chief said yesterday.

S.Y. Quraishi, head of the state-run National Aids Control

Organisation (Naco), said Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, together home to

255 million people, were key if India was to win the battle against

Aids. " Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are highly vulnerable. We are

worried, " Quraishi said.

" Even if a fraction ... of these people have HIV/Aids, it will spell

disaster, " he said. " There is illiteracy, poor health services, more

migrant labour and less empowered women in these states. " Both

states have thousands of villages with little or no access to basic

health care facilities.

Their combined population — 100 million more than Russia —

constitutes a quarter of India's one-billion-plus citizens. At the

moment both states have relatively low infection rates compared to

the national average of 0.92 per cent of the adult population.

" The sheer numbers worry us in Bihar and UP. Even if one per cent of

the population gets HIV infected, we will have 2.5 million cases, "

Quraishi said. Bihar has a literacy rate of 47 per cent and UP 56

per cent, both below the national average of 65 per cent, making

anti-Aids education more challenging, officials say.

Quraishi said another challenge in the war against Aids was reaching

the estimated half-a-million sex workers in India.

Naco says health workers have identified and contacted close to 45

per cent of commercial sex workers since it was formed in 1992, but

hoped to raise that figure to 80 per cent by 2008.

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AIDS rising in the state

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SUNDAY, JULY 28, 2002 01:00:47 AM ]

PATNA: The number of full blown cases of Aids has increased to 128 in Bihar, an

increase of 25 cases since March. The total number of Aids cases in the country

had risen to 36,160 which included 593 new cases detected in June, according to

the National Aids Control Organisation (Naco).

In March, according to Naco, 568 new Aids cases were identified in the country.

In Tamil Nadu, the number of such cases had increased to 16,677 while in

Maharashtra it had risen to 7,823.

In UP 576 cases had been detected while in West Bengal 831 cases had been

identified till June. Bihar State Aids Control Society’s project director C K

Anil refuted the claim of state IMA secretary Dr Sahjanand Prasad Singh that 50

people had tested HIV positive at the five-day National Family Welfare Health

Mela organised at Phulwarisharif from June 15 to 19.

Anil said that although 58 persons had got tested themselves voluntarily at the

five-day mela, none had tested HIV positive.

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