HIV cases on rise in Kavre

The number of people living with HIV in the district is on the rise, show recent statistics from the District Public Health Office (DPHO).

Acute HIV infection

The number of HIV -infected people reached 213 in the 2011-12 fiscal year from 170 in 2010-11. “The number of people living with HIV increased significantly in the district this year,” said DPHO chief Dr Arjun Prasad Sapkota. He added that most of those infected are sex workers and migrant workers who returned home from foreign jobs. In addition to raising awareness on safe sex through health workers and providing medicines for those with HIV , the DPHO launched an orientation programme on preventing mother-to-child transmission of the disease at Dhulikhel Hospital on Wednesday.

The Health Ministry has been conducting special programmes in all 75 districts of the country to control HIV /AIDS. Sanjaya Dahal, an official at the National Centre for AIDS and STD Control, said an estimated 50,000 people were living with HIV in the country in 2011. “The Health Ministry is working to control the disease,” said Dahal.
The government has been distributing free antiretroviral drugs to the HIV -infected from 36 depots across the country. Available data show 6,483 people with HIV were taking the drug last year.

Posted on: ekantipur  2012-07-21