Despite measures, AIDS spreads alarmingly in U’khand

Times of India: Nainital: Thursday, 06 August 2015.

In an illustration of how fast HIV is spreading in Uttarakhand despite the government spending crores in AIDS-control measures, a query by a Haldwani-based RTI activist has revealed that the state spent almost Rs 5 crore in curbing the disease and spreading awareness in last 10 years, while 652 deaths due to the dreaded virus were reported in the last 13 years. Meanwhile, despite government claims of success, the number of HIV-positive cases have continued to spiral, with a staggering 858 registered in 2014-15, against 37 in 2002-03.

Officials of the Uttarakhand State AIDS Control Society (SACS) offered a reason behind the disturbing growth. Rajendra Pandey, additional project director, USACS said, "Diagnosis is possible now on a large scale, hence increased numbers of the infected. When we started 13 years ago, only a few centres were available throughout the state for diagnosis. Now we have more than 50. Also, there are screening facilities in every community health centre."

An RTI application filed by Gurvinder Singh Chaddha, a resident of Haldwani, has revealed the sorry state of affairs of failed preventive measures to check HIV infection in the state. The patients also include minors of less than 14 years and pregnant women, along with transgenders. The number of infected among minors less than 14-years of age and pregnant women has registered an alarming growth in the last 13 years. In 2002-03, only five such minors were infected by the lethal virus, whereas not a single pregnant woman was found infected throughout the state. In 2014-15, a total of 64 minors below 14 years of age and 51 pregnant women have been found infected. A total of 523 such minors and 381 pregnant women were infected over these years. Over the same period, 29 transgenders were found to have HIV.

The infection was found only in two Uttarakhand districts in 2002-03 Dehradun and Nainital. It has since spread to every other district. In the last decade, according to the RTI information, more than Rs 2.88 crore has been spent in care, support and treatment of HIV-positive people under low-cost AIDS care schemes by Uttarakhand SACS. The body has also spent more than Rs 1.8 crore in advertisements in newspapers and magazines for prevention and control of the virus in the last ten years.