Dear Brothers and Sisters
Yesterday was World AIDS Day. There are about 34 million people infected with HIV and about 1.5 million are dying every year in the world. So far, about 35 million have died of AIDS in the world.
India has the third highest no. of people living with HIV in the world, i.e., 2.1 million out of ~4.8 million in the Asia-Pacific region. That is 4 out of 10.
National AIDS Control Organization, NACO is involved in the control of HIV/AIDS in India. HIV treatment coverage is only 36% in India, where about 51% of AIDS related deaths occur. About 64% of people don't have access to ART (Anti Retro-viral Therapy) in India. But prevalence of AIDS in female sex workers has increased in Assam, Bihar and MP. There are ~868000 sex workers in India out of whom 2.8% is HIV positive.
Prevalence rate is high in males (61%) and in 15-49 age group (89%).
Second line therapy for HIV is applied after conducting viral load tests on those who develop resistance to First line therapy. But the test kits are not available. As a result, the second line therapy is given based on clinical findings.
For further facts about HIV: http://www.worldaidsday.org/about-hiv.php
Let's spread the knowledge about HIV/AIDS to contain its spread.
