GORAKHPUR: East UP wakes up to AIDS

[Guest guest]

East UP wakes up to AIDS import

AVIJIT GHOSH.

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [sUNDAY, JULY 24,2005 10:16:19 PM ]

GORAKHPUR: When Sunita Devi, a young attractive woman in her mid-

20s, checked in for a gall bladder operation, Dr Mohammed Ayub

hardly paid any attention. Such cases are routine at Barhalganj's

Johara Hospital, 58 km from here.

But that was until the staff ran a HIV rapid test on her. " When I

told her she was infected and explained its consequences, the woman

was inconsolable. She wasn't as worried about her own life as the

fate of her two young children, " says the doctor.

For Dr Ayub, a surgeon who runs the vastly successful 100-bed

hospital, the story is familiar. And, he is not the only one getting

worried. Social workers as well as village officials affirm that in

several districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, HIV/AIDS has emerged as

a killer import from metros like Mumbai and countries like Thailand—

workstations for many in these parts.

Ayub's hospital records offer an idea of the magnitude.

In the past six months, at least 26 indoor patients have tested HIV

positive. " The overall figure is higher. Quite a few were diagnosed

with the infection before they were admitted, " he says.

AIDS activist Ravi Rai, who conducted a survey in neighbouring

Azamgarh district's brothels in 2003, says one out of every four sex

workers turned out to be HIV positive. Says a local doctor who has

looked up the medical reports of several migrant labourers back from

Mumbai, " There is a huge difference between the number of HIV

positive cases I know and what the rest of the village or anyboy

else does. "

It's all linked to the region's economy. With few industries around, most men

travel far and wide in search of jobs.

Back in the early 20th century, many from eastern UP went to work in

the sugarcane plantations of Fiji, Mauritius and West Indies.

These days they journey to metros — Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi —and

to countries like Thailand, Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia earning

livelihood as cloth merchants, watchmen, drivers, even money

lenders. " First these people brought back prosperity. Now they also

bring home AIDS, " says farmer Sunil Sahi.

A majority of the HIV positive people belong to the 25-40 age group

and are relatively poor. With literacy a mere 45 per cent, AIDS

awareness too is low. Many migrants come back with the dreaded virus

and pass it on to their wives. And Sunita Devi, whose husband works

in Mumbai, is just one of many such unsuspecting HIV positive

people.

SP Goel, project director, Uttar Pradesh State AIDS Control Society

(UPSACS), admits that the state is vulnerable to the killer

infection, especially districts with significant migrant population

such as Gorakhpur, Siddharth Nagar, Kushinagar and Deoria. " There

could be many cases we don't know of, " he says.

The state spent a meagre Rs 9.43 crore controlling the disease in

2004-05. Although UP now has an anti-retroviral therapy unit in

Varanasi, activist Rai warns that the disease is

being " underestimated " .

Consider this. At Barhalganj's community health centre, medical

officer SK Pandey says no HIV-AIDS related statistics is available

because the hospital doesn't have testing facilities. " Whenever we

suspect a patient is HIV positive, we send the person to Gorakhpur, "

he says.

According to National Aids Control Organisation's 2004 estimates,

there are over 5.13 million HIV-positive cases in India. However,

according to UPSACS, the state has only 1,614 reported cases of AIDS and 10,490

HIV-positive people.

District health officials in Gorakhpur, too, insist that the

prevalence rate is low. But many villages have cases to report. Ram

Vilas Yadav, pradhan of Shukrauli says three men and two women were

diagnosed with HIV infection in the village. " Medical reports from

Lucknow testified to their condition, " he says. The men had been to

Thailand. A Nevada villager was sent back from Dubai after he tested

positive.

In Sansarpar village, Jadunath lost two brothers and a sister-in-law

to AIDS in the past one year. " Now I have to fend for their three

children, " he says. Similarly, in Nevada, three members of a single

family are dead; one of them was a trucker on the highway. " He died

of AIDS, " revealed the deceased's elder brother last week.

On occasions, the disease has also created panic. Last year in

nearby Urua block, scared villagers refused to carry a victim's body

to the cremation ground fearing infection.

Pradyumn Mishra, who runs an AIDS awareness programme for truckers

on NH 29, points out that with husbands working away, cases of

incest are common.

" Many are wary of admitting being infected because it brings their

sexual secrets out in the open. "

Fighting the silence is a long battle against HIV-AIDS that has

hardly begun in east UP.

(Some names have been changed to protect identity)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1181218,curpg-3.cms