Chandigarh registers 30 pc increase in HIV+ cases

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Chandigarh registers 30 pc increase in HIV+ cases

Chandigarh, June 30

The increase in the number of HIV cases in the region is becoming a major cause

for concern for health authorities in the city. In the past two years, the city

hospitals have recorded as many as 2,333 HIV + cases, an increase of almost 100

cases.

While the Chandigarh itself has registered an increase of 30 per cent in HIV

case (from 95 in 2006 to 124 in 2008), the other cases are from the neighbouring

states of Himachal, Punjab and Haryana.

Speaking on the increase in HIV + cases, state Aids Control Society director Dr

Vaneeta Gupta, said of the 2,333 patients, 57 per cent were men, 39.3 per cent

women and 3.8 per cent children. She said the number of cases had been

increasing rapidly every year.

As compared to the 1,126 cases in 2006, the figure in 2007 stood at 1,207 cases.

While, 124 cases belong to Chandigarh, the figure could be higher if the cases

going to private laboratories and nursing homes are added, she said.

According to local NGOs working in this field, the infected are mostly middle

and lower middle-class housewives, whose husbands work in some other city.

Health official say the husbands are carriers of the disease.

SACS officials blame the educated middle class, who migrate to cities in search

of jobs for the spread of the disease.

Gupta said, increasing awareness about the disease is also one of the reasons

for more patients coming forward for treatment, said a doctor.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080701/cth1.htm#11