‘HIV/AIDS in city down to .11 per cent in 2016 from .27 per cent’

“Chandigarh State AIDS Control Society (CSACS) has taken major steps over the past years to control the HIV/AIDS prevalence in the Union Territory and the surrounding areas. The prevalence of HIV in an area is measured by the positivity amongst pregnant women,” said Dr Vanita Gupta, Project Director, CSACS in a press conference on Wednesday. She said that the high risk groups have also been showing a decreasing incidence of HIV. New infections and sexually transmitted infections have also shown a decline. “The prevalence amongst intravenous drug users continues to be the same as in the past years and is something that is being addressed aggressively,” said Dr Vanita.

She further informed that currently, there are 4,550 patients on Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) in the centre at PGIMER. “Out of these, 578 (12.70%) are from the local population,” she said and added that the patient load in Chandigarh is actually a reflection of the region including the states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
Another indicator of low prevalence of HIV, Vanita said, is the positivity in the blood units collected through voluntary blood donations in the blood banks which is also very low at 0.03%.

About the two-day conference, officials said it is primarily planned as a mainstreaming activity to sensitize and attempt to involve the community in the AIDS control programme. The officials also stated that there are 3,000 sex workers, and 100 transgenders who are registered with the AIDS society.