‘HIV focus shifts from blood to syringe’

[Guest guest]

`HIV focus shifts from blood to syringe'

Sumit Ghoshal

Monday, December 19, 2005 21:50 IST

HIV control programmes in India stress on safe sex and promote the

use of condoms. But a study released last week suggests that

injections, tattoos and laboratory testing methods may be

responsible for a substantial number of new HIV cases in the

country.

The report by Mariette Correa and Gisselquist says current

figures of HIV being spread through sexual transmission are

overestimated. The report is based on surveys carried out at Sangli

in Maharashtra, Belgaum in Karnataka, Namakkal in Tamil Nadu and

south Goa.

" For instance, we found that the average truck driver had just one

unprotected sexual encounter with a female sex worker every year

between 1997 and 2002, " the report reads. Also, HIV cases are higher

in some rural districts of Maharashtra, Goa and Tamil Nadu than

cities like Mumbai or Chennai.

But veteran HIV/AIDS activist IS Gilada said, " I don't agree with

this view. Sexual transmission is still the most important, but it

has moved from sex workers to the general public. So, HIV

transmission through sex workers is relatively less nowadays. "

Professor of medicine at the Grant Medical College Alka Deshpande

said, " The sexual route is still the most prevalent and injections

account for only six per cent of the cases. " But the report talks of

several instances of non-sterile syringes being used on patients in

private and public hospitals both in rural and urban areas.

http://dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1003069 & CatID=1