HIV scare: People coming voluntarily for check up in J&K

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Feb 17: With widespread awareness campaign and education programmes launched by the government, about 33,000 people have voluntarily come forward for HIV/AIDS check up in last four years in Jammu and Kashmir.

According to the officials, although very few HIV positive cases have been reported among the people who came for the tests, but officials say that it shows about the level of awareness among the people regarding the deadly disease.

The state has so far recorded about 1,410 cases of HIV/AIDS victims but many NGO feel that the number could be higher as in some cases victims don’t come forward or reveal themselves due to stigma attached with the virus.

“Our efforts are bearing fruits and people have themselves visited our health institutions for check up. It allows us to monitor any possible victim and provide him necessary help”, said a official of J&K AIDS control society. “Awareness is the best defense against the disease which claim thousands of lives in the world every year”, he said.

According to the officials associated with the disease control programme, though the number of cases in the state are very few but keeping in view the migratory population coming to the state and the tourists visiting here there always remain a threat that the AIDS may infect people particularly the labourers, truck drivers and sex workers.

In its efforts to reach out to the youngsters, the society has also trained about 4,000 school teachers to impart education to the school children about the deadly disease and religious teachers including Maulvis and Granthis have also using their platform to spread the awareness.

Under the religious advocacy programme 840 Imam's and 500 Granthis have been trained across the state to reach out to the people. According to the official sources the threat of spread of disease is through the active drug users which has shown a upward trend during the militancy years, truck drivers who constantly move outside the state with their vehicle and unprotected sex.

Apart from this about 17000 workers of social welfare department, 2400 village heads have also been trained so far who would work as ambassadors for convening the messages in their respective areas.

Director said that as per the survey conducted by the society AIDS graph has shown reduction of 0.3 percent in high risk groups and 0.02 percent in general population in the state.

The state has eight voluntary counseling and testing centers, four each in Jammu and Srinagar while 22 blood banks across the state have been modernized to ensure safe blood transfusion.