Mizoram has climbed to third place in India’s national HIV prevention ranking, but continues to record the highest adult HIV prevalence rate in the country, underscoring a stark gap between prevention efforts and infection levels, officials said on Friday.
Despite improvements in preventive measures, the northeastern state’s adult HIV prevalence stands at 2.75 per cent—more than thirteen times the national average of 0.20 per cent, according to Mizoram State AIDS Control Society (MSACS).
“There has been a declining trend in the number of new HIV infections since 2018,” MSACS Project Director Dr Jane R Ralte said. Mizoram moved up from fifth position in 2024–25 to third in 2025–26 in the national HIV prevention ranking, she added.
“Mizoram has achieved immense progress on the National AIDS Control Organisation’s scorecard as far as AIDS preventive measures or response efforts are concerned,” Ralte told reporters. “The number of new HIV infections in the state has steadily declined since 2018.”
Even so, she said, Mizoram “still has the highest adult HIV prevalence rate in the country (2.75 per cent), exceeding the national average of 0.20 per cent.”
Between April 2024 and November 2025, at least 3,257 people tested positive for HIV from over 1.4 lakh blood samples, including 953 women and 179 pregnant women, Ralte said.
The highest incidence of HIV infection was reported among people aged 25 to 34, highlighting ongoing challenges in reaching young adults despite improved awareness and prevention programmes.
The first HIV positive case was detected in Mizoram in October 1990, and since then, 33,781 cases have been found so far, she said.
A total of 26,321 people are estimated to be currently infected with the virus, and they are recovering, another MSACS official said.
At least 5,026 people have died due to complications caused by AIDS since 2005, when antiretroviral therapy (ART) treatment began in the state, the official added.
"Of the 3,257 new cases found between April 2024 and November 2025, 70.4 per cent were found sexually transmitted, 27.3 per cent through sharing needles by intravenous drug users, 1.8 per cent from parent to child and 0.8 per cent from unknown sources," Ralte said.
Health Minister Lalrinpuii said that the state government is making massive efforts to prevent the high HIV incidence rate in the state by implementing several measures.
She said 14 ART centres have been set up across the state and 18,355 infected patients are currently taking ART treatment at such facilities.
The minister also said that the government is also mulling a collaboration with churches to spread awareness among church members to get HIV tests done before marriage.