Kohima Bureau
Kohima, March 21 (EMN): Nagaland has recorded 1497 new cases of HIV in just a span of 10 months i.e., April 2017 to Jan. 2018, the Nagaland State AIDS Control Society (NSACS) has revealed on Wednesday. Data released by the NSACS to journalists during a media programme on HIV and AIDS in Kohima indicated that out of 75, 227 tests carried out in all the 11 districts during stated period, 1497 tested positive.
Dimapur tops the district-wise breakup with 828 positive cases while Kohima, Tuensang, and Mokokchung trail with 254, 123, and 106 cases, correspondingly.
The report was presented by the deputy director NSACS Dr. Vezokholu Theyo during the programme.
The officer said that the current HIV and AIDS prevalence rate for adults in the state was 0.76%. This is higher than the national prevalence rate of 0.25%, according to the National AIDS Control Organization (Naco) bulletin of December 2017, Theyo said.
Also, according to the state’s Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTC), the cumulative figures since 1999 showed that out of 10, 16, 700 blood screens (8, 04,460 general clients and 2,12,240), 22, 878 tested positive.
The cumulative status of people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHIVA) on antiretroviral therapy (ART) from 2004 was that 16, 713 registered out of which 11, 183 started ART while 1504 died and the rest 7294 are ‘alive and on ART.’ The NSACS data revealed that from April 2017-Jan. 2018, 84 out of 2072 blood samples screened for children of under-14 years of age tested positive. The cumulative figure of the same age group since Oct. 2007 stands at 975 positive cases (488 males and 487 females).
The report stated that during stated period, 139 pregnant women were diagnosed out of which 125 registered at an ART centre and 114 initiated on ART. 176 cases of TB-HIV were also detected from the month of Apr. to Dec. 2017.
Nonetheless, Dr. Theyo said there was stabilisation of HIV trends and HIV-related deaths: they have gone down in the state according to surveillance data with the year 2007 as the baseline. She attributed it to intervention programmes, facilities, treatment-care and support provided to PLHIVA.
The officer informed also that there were 71 standalone ICTCs across the state, eight ART centres, six link ART centres and five care-support centres. 45 NGOs are working in the HIV related field. While saying that all the districts would be equipped with basic diagnostic equipments soon, she mentioned that in Jan. 2018, the Naco had provided point-of-care (POC) diagnostic machines to the Naga Hospital in Kohima; Jalukie and Phek while one CD4 POC machines was procured from the Chief Secretary’s Welfare Fund and installed at the district hospital of Dimapur.
New initiatives of
the NSACS
Theyo said the programmes will include a three-month epidemiological investigation into the drivers of HIV and AIDS. It has been scheduled to begin in May 2018. Another programme is the World Health Organization’s 90:90:90 strategy, an ambitious treatment target to help end the AIDS epidemic by 2020; 90% of all PLHIVA to know their status; 90% of all diagnosed with HIV infection to receive sustained ART; and 90% of all people receiving ART to have viral suppression.
In her address, the NSACS joint director (IEC) Metevinuo Sakhrie said that the purpose for organising a seminar with the media of the state capital was to engage them as full partners in the fight against the HIV epidemic. It is to make them understand the data to disseminate correct information and spread the information to the public, it was informed.
Supplementing this, another officer, Ainato Yeptho, an assistant director at NSACS, expressed concern that the epidemic had reached deep into the ‘hidden population’ at the grassroots. He emphasized the need to spread awareness about the prevalence of HIV in the state by way of disseminating correct and positive information which he said would lead to reducing stigma and discrimination. Around 25 media persons attended the programme.
Nagaland HIV and AIDS status (Apr. 2017-Jan. 2018)
