HIV/AIDS cases have been steadily going up in Arunachal Pradesh over the last few years, with 434 cases being recorded till December last year.
Arunachal Pradesh State AIDS Control Society (APSACS) mission director Riken Rina said the positive cases of 434 have been detected in the state out of total 4, 69,168 tests conducted till the period.
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Rina said this while speaking at a four-day induction training of 40 outreach workers of various NGOs in Itanagar.
Papum Pare district top the list of HIV/AIDS patients with 272 cases, Lohit district comes in second with 46 cases, followed by East Siang with 26 cases.
West Siang and Changlang districts recorded 19 cases each.
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West Kameng recorded 14, Namsai 12, Lower Subansiri 8, East Kameng 5, Tawang 4, Lower Dibang Valley and Tirap three cases each, Upper Siang 2 and Dibang Valley recorded one case.
“Though no HIV case was detected in Kurung Kumey, Upper Subansiri and Anjaw districts, but HIV has taken a menacing form which calls for concerted efforts with pragmatic steps involving various sections of the society is need of the time to prevent spread of HIV,” Rina added.
APSACS assistant director Marto Ete said those inject drug are known as injecting drug users (IDUs).
“Bridge population comprise people, who, through close proximity to high risk groups are at the risk of contracting HIV. Quite often they are clients or partners of male and female sex workers and mostly truckers and migrant labourers, he said, adding they are a critical group because of their ‘mobility with HIV’,” he added.
“Their living and working conditions, sexually active age and separation from regular partners for extended periods of time predispose them to paid sex or sex with non-regular partners. Further, inadequate access to treatment for sexually transmitted infections aggravates the risk of contracting and transmitting the virus,” Ete added.