The Dimapur district in Nagaland has recorded a total of 938 HIV positive cases during the period from April 2019 to January 2020.
Altogether 881 in the general category were found to be positive out of the 12,512 persons tested for HIV in Dimapur district during the period.
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Fifty-seven pregnant women also tested positive out of the 4,025 tested for the virus in the district during the same period.
This was revealed by the monitoring and evaluation assistant, District AIDS Prevention and Control Committee, Yanger Aier, at the fourth quarterly meeting of the committee held in the deputy commissioner’s conference hall at Dimapur on Thursday.
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According to the official, 95 per cent of those tested positive contracted the virus through sexual route, three per cent from parent to child and two per cent through syringes.
On antiretroviral therapy (ART) status in the district, Aier said a total of 10,836 people were registered as on January 31 this year.
Of the 10,836 people, 7762 started ART, 1020 died, 4564 are alive on ART and 613 lost their lives during the follow-up treatment.
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Dimapur deputy commissioner Anoop Khinchi, who chaired the meeting, called for better coordination among all stakeholders in the district and an action plan to achieve the desired goal.
The meeting discussed at length measures to prevent transmission of HIV from mother to child, different programmes and schemes for infected and affected people, nutritional support and problems faced by the beneficiaries.
The issues of the shortage of manpower at the ART centre in Dimapur district hospital and various possible platforms for creating awareness among the people were also discussed.
Nagaland ranks third in HIV prevalence in India with 50 per cent of the infected people from Dimapur district.
Most of the HIV positive people in the state are in the age group of 15 to 35 years.
Mizoram has the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in India followed by Manipur and Nagaland.