AIDS fear looms over Bhilai Steel Plant

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AIDS fear looms over Bhilai Steel Plant

Published: Monday, 17 July, 2006, 12:57 PM Doha Time

The Chhattisgarh government's Aids Control Committee said the BSP, a

flagship unit of state-run Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and

located 30 km west of Raipur, has 92 confirmed Aids patients out of

a total of 317 identified in the state.

" BSP tops the report with 92 confirmed cases followed by Durg with

55 cases and Rajnandgaon with 46, " said R K Rajmani, chief of the

Aids Control Committee. Raipur stands fifth in the tally with 28

cases.

The study found that 38% of the confirmed Aids patients were in the

age group of 30-39 years.

" Aids is definitely becoming a big threat. Only awareness can help

people to overcome it but it will take years for the government to

bring rural areas and people living in the interiors under the Aids

awareness programme, " Chhattisgarh Health Minister Krishnamurthy

Bandhi said.

The annual report gives the Aids statistics in the state till the

end of April 2006. It is based on blood samples collected at the 16

urban centres.

According to the document, the state recorded 36 new confirmed cases

of Aids during the first four months of 2006 while the number of HIV

positive cases went up to 1,161 from 940 cases reported in December

2005.

Raipur, with a population of about one million, topped the list of

HIV positives at 453 followed by Durg (213) and Bilaspur (197).

The report does not touch upon the state's vast rural population.

About 80% of Chhattisgarh's 20mn people reside in rural areas and

officials say the forested belt housing the largely illiterate

tribal groups are vulnerable to Aids because of the socially

permitted promiscuity.

Chhattisgarh's rural areas lack basic health facilities such as

primary health centers. The government is yet to open a district

hospital in the tribal Dantewada district.

Officials say a large number of unreported Aids patients die every

month in rural areas due to the poor health network and threat of

violence by the Maoist rebels who are active in eight of the state's

16 districts.

In May, UNaids said there were an estimated 5.7mn Indians living

with Aids at the end of 2005, more than in any other country and

ahead of South Africa's 5.5mn cases.

The issue has stirred a deabte in the local media as to whether the

figures are correct.

India has planned to verify UN estimates that it had overtaken South

Africa as the country with the highest number of people living with

HIV/Aids in the world, a government official said.

It was not fair to say India had the world's largest HIV-infected

population as countries such as China, which says it has 650,000

infections, did not have comprehensive surveillance systems in place

compared with India, he added. – IANS

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