According to recent Human Immuno deficiency Virus (HIV) Surveillance Report of 2016-2017 by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), the State of Mizoram has the highest number of HIV positive cases. According to NACO’s report, around 15235 people in Mizoram are recorded to be living with HIV disease. The first case of HIV was recorded in early 1990s and it was the result of ‘drugs uses’. From the early 2000s till date it was reported that ‘sexual driven’ is one of the reason in the increase of HIV in the state. It may be noted that drugs abused and sexual desire are two main components in spreading of HIV in Mizoram. Mizoram has the highest HIV victims and the State saw 1736 death from this disease.
Manipur comes second in the list with 12309 HIV positive cases, Nagaland with 7289 and Arunachal Pradesh comparatively recorded a lesser number of 93 cases. As per the data provided by the Union Health Minister, during the Budget session of the Lok Sabha, there are 1590 people in Assam who are detected with HIV-AIDS in 2017 and that the number includes not only men or women but even pregnant women.There are around 24.68% of female sex workers in the State who are affected by the disease against the national average of 1.56%. According to the report by the Mizoram State AIDS Control Society (MSACS), 70% of people in the State are affected due to unprotected sex and 33% because of drugs. The report further reveals that Mizoram ranks highest with 1.19% of pregnant women, infected with HIV positive diseases followed by thirteen States in the country. Nagaland is second in the list with 0.82% and Meghalaya is third with 0.73%.
Donboklang Wanniang
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