World AIDS Day: Counsellors to engage dating app users for HIV awareness
Mumbai: For the first time, Mumbai District AIDS Control Society (MDACS) has decided to target the virtual dating population in the city for raising awareness on HIV and providing HIV testing facilities
Mumbai: For the first time, Mumbai District AIDS Control Society (MDACS) has decided to target the virtual dating population in the city for raising awareness on HIV and providing HIV testing facilities.
The society has appointed counsellors for the virtual dating apps that will engage with the participants in spreading awareness on the disease.
Dr Vijaykumar Karanjkar, deputy director, MDACS said, “Dating apps are popular and in India, we will be the first to take up such an intervention. This will be a pilot project and we will have to see how it works out.”
He said the project will have virtual-friendly Integrated Counselling and Testing Centers (ICTC). “The counsellors we have appointed for the project have been sensitised on how to handle the cases. It includes virtual counselling, risk assessment and risk reduction,” said Dr Karanjkar.
He added that they had observed hesitancy by the virtual population to visit government facilities for screening and testing.
“We will be having zero waiting for the virtual population. The three ICTCS have been identified for the same and staff has been sensitised. The service is for the general population,” said Dr Karanjkar.
Another official said penetrating into the virtual dating population is difficult and they are not restricting it to LGBTQ+ community. “We had started it a while back where one of our counsellors had profiles in the dating app to reach out to the members. They will direct them to these ICTC facilities too,” said the official.
Meanwhile, data released by the MDACS showed a decline in the new HIV infections in Mumbai. MDACS said 4,75,540 people were tested in the year April 2019-20, out of which 0.9 percent i.e. 4473 people were found to be HIV positive. In the year 2021-22 out of 3,87,399 people tested, 0.08 percent i.e. 3087 people were found to be HIV positive. In the current year April 2022 to October, 0.08 percent i.e 1910 people have been found HIV positive out of 252962 total testings.
In 2021-22 there were 1245 deaths reported in the city while in 2019-20 (pre covid) 1265 deaths were reported. This year from April to October 487 people have died due to HIV.
Ganesh Acharya, HIV/AIDS activist said the number of HIV/AIDS deaths in the city is of concern. “The number of people who died in 2021-22 is almost the same as pre-Covid days. We need more interventions for early detection and early treatment to prevent deaths. During the covid-19 pandemic, both the screening, intervention had taken a hit,” he said.
MDACS said 877 (2.4%) people living with HIV lost follow up in 2021-22. The city has 36031 people living with HIV. “We are trying to reach out to the people who have lost to follow-up and find the reason behind the same,” said Dr Karanjkar.