Alcohol and AIDS make strange bedfellows

[Guest guest]

Alcohol and AIDS make strange bedfellows

NIHAL KOSHIE

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

YDERABAD: Several alcoholics, it has been detected, have turned out to be

HIV-positive. This alarming trend has come to light from a s Hopkins

Foundation test which the Freedom Foundation has adopted to screen patients for

HIV.

Such cases have increased in the state in the last one year. Out of a total of

352 HIV-positive cases handled at the Freedom Foundation’s HIV and AIDS care and

support centre Bolarum, Secunderabad, it turned out that 93 were alcoholics.

According to Freedom Foundation executive trustee Ashok K. Rau, out of 51 HIV

cases reported in October, 21 were of alcoholics.

This in spite of the foundation raising the parameter to determine whether an

individual is an alcoholic or not.

“Earlier no one looked at this aspect. It is now clear that alcoholics are a

high-risk group,” Mr. Rau said.

An alcoholic is not bothered about safe sex and as a result acquires the dreaded

disease.

“Once in an intoxicated state I never bothered about the consequences of unsafe

sex,” said HIV-positive Ajeet, a divorcee and an alcoholic, who is under the

care of the Freedom Foundation.

He said even after he was diagnosed as HIV-positive, he was not sure whether he

always practised safe sex or not, since he was always drunk.

The chance of the HIV virus spreading through alcoholics is high since sex

follows after alcohol in many cases.

“There is a direct connection between liquor, unsafe sex and the spread of the

virus,” Mr. Rau said. He said on an average 10 to 12 per cent of the alcoholics

are HIV-positive.

“This is a dangerous trend since alcohol and sex are fast becoming the most

popular way to have fun among the youth,” he said. “The de-addiction rate among

youth is also low,” he added.

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