Imphal, October 05 2010: With the rise in the number of persons volunteering for tests, people infected by HIV/AIDS is also increasing in Manipur, a state which already has a high prevalence of HIV in the country.

A total of 1030 persons out of 28,135 tested in four months were found to be HIV positive, official sources in the MACS (Manipur AIDS Control Society) said.

Giving further details the source said that from April to July of this year, a total of 28,135 people were tested.

Out of them, 1030 were found to be HIV positive.

Again out of this total, 85 were pregnant women.

They further said that for the current year, 2009-10, blood samples of a total of 83,836 people have been tested for the disease.

Out of them 32,176 were from the general population while 51,660 were pregnant women.

A total of 3041 persons were found to be infected with HIV and out of them 268 were pregnant women.

With this, MACS officials estimate the total number of people affected by HIV/AIDS till August 2010 in the state at 36,372.Out of them 9733 are female while 1800 are children.

The rest are male patients.

MACS deputy director, Abhiram Mongjam said that the rise in the detection of positive people is due to sudden rise in the number of people valunteering for tests in these four months.

HIV tests had been conducted at the rate of 6000 a year.

But the number has risen to 40,000 in this current year.

This is a good sign and a fall out of concerted efforts of government agencies and NGOs working in the field.

Dr.Abhiram said there has been a reduction in the death rate of people living with HIV since the opening of ART centres in the state.

There are six ART centre and altogether 17,253 patients are getting the ART treatment.

The ART centre was first opened in April 2004 .

Detecting a total of 1030 positive people in a span of only four months is a serious matter but authority still needs to be confirmed whether these positive people were freshly infected one or they include old cases, said general secretary, Sashikumar of Social Awareness service Organisation (SASO) .

Asserting that the figure is an alarming one, he stressed the need for intensification of mass awareness campaign among the general populace.

Government needs to find out a new strategy to attract people to come for voluntary testing.

On the other hand, RIMS, NNTCT in-charge, Dr Indra observed that the increasing rate of infection of people by the disease is an indication of a lack of awareness in the people about the preventive measures to be taken up.

He said, it can be observed that people are aware of the dreaded disease from the extensive mass awareness campaign of government agencies and NGOs.

But they fail to take care of the preventive measures to be taken up by themselves.

Manipur with some 2.4 million people located at the Indo-Myanmar border is among the states in the country having a high HIV prevalence.

In the early 1980s drug use became popular in northeast India and it wasn't long before HIV was detected among IV drug users.

Although NACO reports a state-wise HIV prevalence of 17.9% among IDUs, studies from different areas in the state find the prevalence rate to be as high as 32% .

HIV is no longer confined to IDUs, but has spread to the general population.

HIV prevalence at antenatal clinics in Manipur exceeded 1% in recent years, but then declined to 0.75% in 2007 .

Estimated adult HIV prevalence is the highest out of all states, at 1.57% .

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