HIV prevalent in 31 p.c. of IDU

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, APRIL. 27. HIV prevalence among injecting drug users (IDU) in Chennai is about 31 per cent, according to a Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society study.

This was more than 10 per cent higher than the figures obtained from an earlier sentinel survey among IDUs and hence cause for concern, said Dr. K. Gopal, project director, TNSACS here today.

Dr.Gopal, who inaugurated a workshop on `rapid situation assessment dissemination workshop on IDU in Chennai, organised by UNESCO and SHARAN, a New Delhi-based NGO, said that the Society had taken many initiatives to tackle the spread of the infection. But there were many barriers including physical threats from gangs to NGO personnel.

Dr. Suniti Solomon, director, YRG Care, in her special address, pointed out that most of the country thought for a very long time that IDU was a problem of the north-eastern states only. This was similar to the stance adopted about a decade and a half ago when she discovered the HIV virus here. There was no time to be lost and corrective action needed to be taken up at an early date, she said.

Copies of a booklet on injecting drug use and HIV - certain tips to interventionists, compiled by Dr.M.Suresh Kumar, psychiatrist, Institute of Mental Health, was handed over to NGO representatives on the occasion. Dr. P. Krishnamurthy, DPH, Dr. Mohan D. Gupte, director, National Institute of Epidemiology and Dr. M. Soundara Rajan, psychiatrist, was among those who highlighted the various aspects of IDU.

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Section  : Southern States
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