Pledge to stop AIDS in northeast

[Guest guest]

Pledge to stop AIDS bomb from exploding in northeast

Thursday December 1 2005 14:50 IST

IANS

GUWAHATI: Thousands of people in India's northeast, where the large

number of drug users has sparked fears of a worsening AIDS epidemic,

pledged on Thursday to step up the fight against HIV by spreading

awareness about the dreaded virus.

Schoolchildren, health workers, rehabilitated drug addicts and HIV

positive people wearing red ribbons marched through the streets in

the seven northeastern states - Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur,

Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura - to mark World AIDS Day.

" The slogan this year is 'Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise' meaning there

is a need to step up the level of awareness to check the virus and

the role and responsibilities of government leaders like us in

fighting HIV/AIDS, " Assam Health Minister Bhumidhar Barman said.

" Let us all join hands to combat the stop the AIDS time bomb from

exploding in the northeast, " Barman told IANS.

India accounts for about 5.1 million HIV positive people, next only

to South Africa. Its northeast region has been declared as one of

the country's high risk zones with close to 100,000 people infected

with HIV.

Authorities in the northeast fear the disease may further spread

because of the region's acute drug problem.

India's northeast lies on the edge of the heroin-producing Golden

Triangle of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand and independent estimates

have put the number of regular intravenous drug users in the region

at 300,000 -- a key cause of HIV infection here.

" The trend is very serious here in the northeast with intravenous

drug users passing the infection to the general population in the

region through their sex partners. HIV transmission rates from

mother to child are also assuming frightening proportions, " Manipur

Health Minister Nanda Kumar Singh said.

Manipur is the worst hit by HIV/AIDS with more than 20,000 infected

with the virus.

Health workers also emphasised the need to educate sex workers

following surveys that suggest most were engaging in unprotected sex.

India's defence ministry recently ordered its nearly 100,000 army

and paramilitary troopers deployed in the northeast to carry condoms

to shield them from contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The directive to carry condoms came after army and paramilitary

authorities in the northeast confirmed that scores of soldiers

deployed in the region were struck by HIV with promiscuous sex

attributed as the main reason for contracting the virus.

The paramilitary Assam Rifles was the first to officially

acknowledge the presence of a large number of soldiers afflicted

with HIV/AIDS, although other army and paramilitary units in the

northeast were yet to come up with a formal assessment.

Lieutenant General Bhopinder Singh, director general of Assam

Rifles, said 32 soldiers have died of AIDS and 180 more are in

serious condition at two treatment camps in the region. The first

HIV positive Assam Rifles soldier was detected in 1992.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEP20051201042927 & Page=P & Title=Natio\

n & Topic=0 &