Bokaro, Nov. 30: The state health department is working overtime to educate people about AIDS after coming to know that Bokaro has the highest number of HIV positive patients in Jharkhand.

Doctors of the health department and district administration have pressed the panic button on the eve of World AIDS Day after a report by a team of doctors revealed that 275 persons in the district have been tested HIV positive at Bokaro General Hospital (BSH), while eight AIDS patients are currently under treatment.

Of the eight patients, two are Central Industrial security Force jawans, whereas three are students, the doctors said.

Deputy commissioner of the district Amrendra Pratap Singh accepted that the authorities did not want to hide the facts on AIDS patients in Bokaro, because the situation was ?definitely alarming?.

Singh said: ?We are giving you the correct figures and true picture of such sufferers.?

Highly placed sources in the health department also said a 22-year-youth of Saiyarda village died from AIDS a few weeks ago after he contracted the disease in Mumbai where he worked as a driver.

The sources added that eight youths of Bengabad (Giridih) have been tested HIV positive at BGH after the doctors referred them to this hospital.

In a disclosure made by the joint director of BGH, S.K. Verma, it was divulged that these 275 persons were detected HIV positive after they came to donate blood at the hospital and at other AIDS awareness camps organised in the district by different NGOs.

Talking exclusively to The Telegraph, Verma said those found HIV positive were either working in metropolitan cities or their villages were situated along national highways where truck drivers plied their vehicles.

The doctor refused to give details on the number of female patients but confirmed that in most cases, the husbands were the carriers of the deadly disease.

Verma also expressed apprehensions that the figure might rise astronomically if all the youths staying near highways came for blood testing, as they ran higher risk of contracting the disease because flesh trade was rampant in villages along the highways.

He added that the doctors had decided to conduct an AIDS awareness camp on a war footing, which will start on Thursday.

Confirming the rise in the number of HIV positive youths in Bokaro, the deputy commissioner also accused other districts of trying to hide the true figure of AIDS patients in their territories.