Times of India: Hyderabad: Wednesday,
March 29, 2017.
The deadly
HIV is on the rise in Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana, with the capital
city alone accounting for 33 per cent of HIV AIDS cases in the state. In fact,
the number of people living with HIV (PLHIV) has increased by seven percent in
the last one year.
According to
official data, Telangana recorded 11,846 new cases of HIV AIDS during 2016. The
total population of PLHIV in the state stands at 1,73,398 as on January 1, 2017
as against 1,61,552 cases in 2015.
About 1,000
new cases of HIVAIDS, are reported every month in the state.Hyderabad has 33
per cent of people living with HIV.The most common route of transmission of the
virus is through heterosexual activity, reveals the official data obtained
through a right to information (RTI) query posed by the Helping Hand Foundation
(HHF).
As many as
55,319 peo ple living with HIV have registered at the three centres in
Hyderabad for anti-retroviral therapy.The centres are Osmania General Hospital
(28807), Gandhi General Hospital (13,938) and Government Chest Hospital
(12,574). After Hyderabad, Khammam district has the highest population of PLHIV
(14,361), followed by Mahbubnagar (13,911), Nalgonda (13,745), Warangal
(12,936), Sangareddy (10,995) and Nizamabad (10,726).
Quoting
official data, HHF president Mujtaba Hasan Askari said Telangana recorded
11,846 new cases of HIVAIDS during 2016. With this, the total PLHIV population
in the state has increased to 1,73,398 (Pre ART2016)."This is an increase
of seven per cent in the HIV AIDS cases during 2016 over the previous year
(2015). But, if the data prior to 2015 is taken into account, one cannot deduce
whether the burden of the disease has increased or decreased as it pertained to
undivided state. At an average, 950 to 1,000 new cases of HIVAIDS were reported
every month during 2016," he said.
Askari said
the total HIVAIDS burden in Telangana seemed to be underestimated. "We
found discrepancy between the numbers shared by Telangana State AIDS Control
Society (TSACS) and the data obtained from ART centres. TSACS officials claimed
that the difference could be on account of transfers to ART Link centres or ART
Plus centres," he said.
The
Foundation also conducted a detailed field level survey across the state and
submitted the findings to the project director of TSACS. He said the TSACS did
not share data on HIV-TB co-infection in the state. Incidentally, the mortality
due to TB in HIV cases is very high.