Kaushambi in HIV grip

With an average two to three HIV positive cases reported every month Kaushambi district is fastly emerging as an AIDS/HIV epidemic region. In the last one month atleast one youth in Muratganj block lost battle against HIV, whereas his teenage wife continues to suffer with HIV amidst poverty and without proper treatment. In February and March 2006, atleast four more HIV positive people were identified at the newly established AIDS Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centre (VCTC) at Manjhanpur block.

20 cases in 4 months

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With an average two to three HIV positive cases reported every month Kaushambi district is fastly emerging as an AIDS/HIV epidemic region. In the last one month atleast one youth in Muratganj block lost battle against HIV, whereas his teenage wife continues to suffer with HIV amidst poverty and without proper treatment.

In February and March 2006, atleast four more HIV positive people were identified at the newly established AIDS Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centre (VCTC) at Manjhanpur block. All the four were male and in the age group of 22 to 32 years. Residents of Sayyed Sarawan, Manauri, Manjhanpur and Karari, two amongst them were doing menial jobs in Mumbai and the other two in Delhi from where they possibly contracted the deadly HIV infection. In this way over 20 HIV positive patients were identified in Kaushambi alone in the past four months. However, one more HIV positive patient of Kazipur village in Muratganj block, 24-year-old S Kumar died due to TB and other opportunistic infection (OI) about a week back. He was identified as suffering from HIV about two years back. He was working in Mumbai for the last several years. His young wife was also found to be HIV positive, said Dr SMA Meesum district AIDS programme officer, Kaushambi.

Dr Meesum said every month atleast two to three HIV positive patients were identified in Kaushambi with maximum from Bharwari. The HIV patients are also getting younger. Earlier mostly people in the age group of 25 to 40 years were found suffering from HIV, but in the last few months increasing number of youths in the age group of 22 to 32 years were identified as HIV positive.

The real problem is that all of them belonged to lower income and poor education group due to which one or the other member of the family migrated to Mumbai and Delhi and contracted infection and also infected their spouses and offsprings.

There could be hundred more HIV patients in Kaushambi but only those suffering from OIs are getting reported to the doctors. And the worse is others could be infecting their innocent partners, he added.

"An aggressive campaigning is required in rural Kaushambi to stop the rampage trail of HIV and AIDS," he said.