14,728 HIV deaths in state since ’09
Over 14,500 people have died due to HIV since April 2009 across Maharashtra, state health minister Suresh Shetty revealed on Tuesday, the second day of the Assembly session.
In a written reply in the legislative council, Mr Shetty said that as per records from the Integrated Counselling and Testing (ICTC) centres, between April 1, 2009 and September 30, 2012, 1,67,151 people were affected due to HIV.
The minister was countering a point raised by Congress MLC Sanjay Dutt during the question hour, in which the latter claimed that 3,43,079 people were affected by HIV since April 1, 2009. Mr Shetty said that according to records from the anti retro-viral therapy (ART) centres, 14,728 people died due to HIV over a period of three years.
He also informed the House that 53 ART centres have been started by the Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society’s (MSACS) Mumbai unit to help treat AIDS patients. Also, awareness programmes to prevent the spread of the disease are being organised on special days like Yuva Day, Women’s Day, World AIDS Day etc, Mr Shetty said.
Asha Hegde, joint director, basic services division of MSACS said, “What Mr Shetty is saying is fairly right because normally, on an average we see 45,000 new infections in a year. The 3,43,079-figure is likely to be the pre-ART registration, which cannot be concluded as the number of affected people in the state.”
HIV care was started for the first time in India at the state-run JJ Hospital in collaboration with Indian Health Organi-sation (now called People’s Health Organis-ation, India) with an AIDS clinic in 1986. The first in-patient care was initiated in 1987.
As per the latest reports released by the National AIDS Control Organi-sation (Naco), out of 2.4 million affected with HIV Aids in India, 18 per cent are from Mahara-shtra.
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