Students present a nukkad natak on AIDS at a rally organised by Tata Steel Family Initiatives Foundation at Dhatkidih in Jamshedpur on Wednesday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, Dec. 1: The AIDS alarm bell is tolling loudly in East Singhbhum. Latest count: 1,000 HIV-positive cases.

Officials of the Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre (ICTC) on Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Medical College and Hospital premises said that since its inception in 2002, about 20,000 patients from different places were counselled at the centre. Among them, around 19,000 opted for necessary tests and over 1,000 were detected HIV-positive.

According to a recent report issued by the Jharkhand State AIDS Control Society (JSACS), there are 7,295 identified HIV-positive cases across the state. Figures were compiled following inputs given by all the 65 ICTCs operational across the state. JSACS revealed that in 2008, the number of HIV-positive patients across the state was 4,041 compared to around 1,900 in 2007.

The numbers are growing.

But in-charge of the ICTC at MGM Medical College and Hospital Akhoury Chandra Srivastava was quick to add that “awareness” lead to disclosure of more cases, which upped figures. “Earlier, most HIV-positive cases went unreported due to lack of testing facilities. But now, there are nine ICTCs which operate in Kolhan region alone,” said Srivastava.

Sami Akhtar, state monitoring and evolution officer of JSACS, told The Telegraph that most cases were reported from East Singhbhum, Hazaribagh, Giridih and Ranchi. “Some pockets, including East Singhbhum, fall under the high-prevalence category due to rising numbers of intravenous drug users and migrants,” he said.

The report also added that out of 1,000 detected cases in East Singhbhum, 60 per cent were male, while unsafe sex was the main culprit.

Affected patients also included a sizeable number of truckers who fall under the high-risk group. “Truckers are highly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, owing to the nature of their profession,” said an ICTC official in Jamshedpur.

Tata Steel corporate sustainability services division organises “Trucker Utsav”, an annual event to mark the World AIDS Day at Transport Nagar in Mango. This year too, hundreds of truckers got themselves examined by doctors today.