Bihar: Nearly 10,000 HIV positive cases in state

[Guest guest]

Nearly 10,000 HIV positive cases in state

Dipak Mishra

PATNA: With the number of HIV positive cases on the rise, the disease is

threatening to assume alarming proportion in Bihar.

According to the latest statistics provided by the Bihar State Aids

Control Society (BSACS), the number of HIV positive cases in the

state is close to 10,000. The first case of AIDS in Bihar was

detected in Nawada in 1992.

In the last two years, the number of such patients have shot up by

over 3,500 and more than 100 have died due to AIDS. Around 64 per

cent of the HIV victims are males.

On an average around 2,000 HIV patients are being detected every year in Bihar.

Unofficially, even members of the society concede that the actual figure of HIV

patients would be much higher.

Despite the claims of creating awareness on AIDS and HIV, patients

hit by the dreaded disease still face social boycott. There are

reports from Saharsa about one Shambhu Singh of Pama village who was

left to die by his family members and co-villagers.

Singh was working in Delhi and has been an HIV patient for the last

three years. Earlier, there were reports from Darbhanga about the

wife of an AIDS patient having to drag the body of her deceased

husband to the cremation pyre because relatives and villagers refused to touch

the body.

Earlier, an HIV patient was reportedly isolated and locked in a room

at Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital. Apparently, the media

publicity and awareness campaign launched by voluntary organisations

is still to evoke the desired public response.

Sources said a major chunk of HIV patients in Bihar are migrant

workers returning to the state after being affected by the disease in Mumbai,

Kolkata, Delhi and other places.

Not surprisingly, the growth of HIV patients has been alarming in

eight districts of North Bihar due to largescale migration of

labourers. These are East Champaran, West Champaran, Khagaria,

Madhubani, Purnia, Kishanganj, Muzaffarpur and Sitamarhi.

But it is not just the large number of migrant labourers the state

has to worry about. The state has been identified for trafficking of

women especially in areas located near the Indo-Nepal border.

There are 22 identified red light areas having about 3,000 sex

workers in Kosi area alone, according to an NGO Bhoomika Vihar.

The number rapidly increased during the past five years. " Its

anybody's guess what the actual figure of HIV patients in Bihar will

be if sex workers and their clients are tested for HIV, " said Arun

Kumar the convener of Bhoomika Vihar.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2132658,curpg-

1.cms

______________________

" Dr. Avnish Jolly "

e-mail: <avnishjolly@...>