Tahir Mushtaq
JAMMU, Jan 27: There is some good news for the state, the number of AIDS cases have shown down ward trend. As per the official data, in 2009, the number of HIV cases were was 501 whereas from April 2010 to December 2010 the positive has decreased to 281.
Official sources disclosed that as compared to other states of India Jammu and Kashmir state has very less in AIDS cases.
When contacted Director AIDS Control Dr Waseem Qureshi said that efforts have been made to reduce the AIDS effected people in the state.
And the government has established many such centres across the state who is working for the AIDS patients.
According to the sources, officially now the figurers have reached to 1811 (2009) from 1600 cases in 2007, which is a worrisome situation for the state health officials as they fear that there may be thousands of more ‘hidden patients’, who are yet to be identified.
Sources said that although state has been categorized among the toppers in the awareness states in the country, but most of the it is concentrated to cities and some towns while rural area have not received much attention, leaving hundreds of people undetected, who may be acting as career of the disease in view of the poor health infrastructure in the far-flung areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
Dr Qureshi said, “It was because of efforts of the society that hidden patients are being detected so that careers are identified”.
On detection of such a large number of cases Dr. Qureshi said, “This is worry but their detection is good for our efforts as they have now been identified and we could prevent further transmission through them and provide medical aid”.
According to the sources although awareness campaigns, seminars and exhibitions are being held across the state but they cannot prevent the spread of HIV as they have become more of the media events rather than reaching out to the highly risk categories.
An official associated with the prevention programme said that figures with the government are those which have come forward for tests or have been detected during the routine testing, but hundreds of others have still not covered by the authorities.
“We are educating the educated people while the high risk category is finding least attention from the programmes. No work has been done on sex workers, truck drivers and a drug user which is major source of transmission in the state”, a source associated with the society said.
JAMMU, Jan 27: There is some good news for the state, the number of AIDS cases have shown down ward trend. As per the official data, in 2009, the number of HIV cases were was 501 whereas from April 2010 to December 2010 the positive has decreased to 281.
Official sources disclosed that as compared to other states of India Jammu and Kashmir state has very less in AIDS cases.
When contacted Director AIDS Control Dr Waseem Qureshi said that efforts have been made to reduce the AIDS effected people in the state.
And the government has established many such centres across the state who is working for the AIDS patients.
According to the sources, officially now the figurers have reached to 1811 (2009) from 1600 cases in 2007, which is a worrisome situation for the state health officials as they fear that there may be thousands of more ‘hidden patients’, who are yet to be identified.
Sources said that although state has been categorized among the toppers in the awareness states in the country, but most of the it is concentrated to cities and some towns while rural area have not received much attention, leaving hundreds of people undetected, who may be acting as career of the disease in view of the poor health infrastructure in the far-flung areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
Dr Qureshi said, “It was because of efforts of the society that hidden patients are being detected so that careers are identified”.
On detection of such a large number of cases Dr. Qureshi said, “This is worry but their detection is good for our efforts as they have now been identified and we could prevent further transmission through them and provide medical aid”.
According to the sources although awareness campaigns, seminars and exhibitions are being held across the state but they cannot prevent the spread of HIV as they have become more of the media events rather than reaching out to the highly risk categories.
An official associated with the prevention programme said that figures with the government are those which have come forward for tests or have been detected during the routine testing, but hundreds of others have still not covered by the authorities.
“We are educating the educated people while the high risk category is finding least attention from the programmes. No work has been done on sex workers, truck drivers and a drug user which is major source of transmission in the state”, a source associated with the society said.
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