The Hindu : HIV/AIDS spreading at a fast pace in State

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 01, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

HIV/AIDS spreading at a fast pace in State

By Nagesh Prabhu

BANGALORE NOV. 30. HIV/AIDS is spreading fast in the State, with cases being reported from all districts. The State is one of the six "high-prevalence" generalised epidemic States together with Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, and Nagaland. It is estimated that about 1.35 per cent of the State's adult population — four lakh people — are HIV positive. The reported cases are just the tip of the iceberg.

Since the first HIV-positive case was detected in the State in 1988, the virus has moved beyond the confines of the "high-risk'' population such as sex workers and entered the general population. The most worrying sign of this is the growing number of pregnant women who turn out to be HIV positive. The prevalence of HIV cases is higher among pregnant rural women attending antenatal clinics than their urban counterparts, according to data collected by the Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society (KSAPS).

Bangalore Urban (3,707 cases), Belgaum (141 cases), Chamarajanagar (eight cases), Dakshina Kannada (917 cases), Mysore (149 cases), Udupi (709 cases), Bellary (1,293 cases), Gulbarga (74 cases), Dharwad (1,043 cases), and Bijapur (130 cases) are the districts where the prevalence of the disease is high.

High prevalence of the diseases is found among the illiterate, the poor, and the migrants. HIV-positive people form more than two per cent of the population in Bijapur, Raichur, Chamarajnagar, and Bangalore Urban districts.

Many participants at the two-day workshop conducted by the KSAPS and the Indo-Canada Collaborative HIV/AIDS Project (ICHAP) here opined that heterosexual contact remained the most common mode by which HIV transmission occurred. Since women in the country tended not to have sex out of wedlock, their risk of contracting HIV ought to be minimal. But men could get infected by visiting sex workers or having illicit relationships, and pass on the virus to their wives.

The KSAPS study revealed that prevalence of HIV positive cases is higher among women whose husbands are in agricultural or unskilled occupations. A recent National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) study showed that nearly half the clients of sex workers were married and most of them were currently living with their wives.

Nearly 86 per cent of the HIV transmission occurs through sexual intercourse followed by peri-natal transmission (3.5 per cent), transfusion of blood and blood products (0.8 per cent), and injectionable-drug users (0.88 per cent) in the State. In Dakshina Kannada and Belgaum districts HIV prevalence in the high-risk population is more than 20 per cent, while in Dharwad and Bellary it is 15 to 20 per cent. It is 10 to 15 per cent in Mysore, Gulbarga and Bangalore Urban districts.

The myth that HIV/AIDS is principally an urban phenomenon too has been exploded. Hospitals were now regularly seeing HIV-positive people from rural areas, the KSAPS Project Director, G.V. Krishna Rau, told The Hindu.

Still without an effective vaccine, HIV/AIDS condemns its victims to a lifetime of medical expenses. Indian drug companies offer some of the lowest prices in the world for anti-retroviral drugs which can check the virus's growth in the body. Still it costs about nearly Rs. 2,000 a month. The drugs do not rid the body of the virus.

Under the World Bank-aided National AIDS Control Programme (1992-98), a State AIDS Cell was set up under the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare in 1992. In 1997, this was established as the KSAPS.

The KSAPS focussed more on creating general awareness among the community about AIDS, establishing information systems for surveillance, blood safety, and STI, and condom distribution programme, Mr. Rau said.

The Director of Samraksha, Sanghamitra Iyengar, told The Hindu that all sectors in civilised society should take the initiative to tackle the disease and rehabilitate the victims. Building the capacity of key stakeholders to implement HIV/AIDS prevention and care programmes was an urgent need, she said.

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