Shillong, Nov. 30: With more suspected HIV/AIDS patients in Meghalaya coming forward to get themselves tested, the state has recorded 625 HIV positive cases till October this year. Meghalaya, however, continues to remain under ‘C’ category, implying low prevalence of the disease. At the same time, it is vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.
On the eve of World AIDS Day, the Meghalaya AIDS Control Society (MACS) project director E. Lyngskor told this correspondent that of the 625 HIV positive cases, 301 were men, 303 women and 21 children.
She said these were only cases available with the lone anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centre at the Shillong Civil Hospital.
During last year’s World AIDS Day programme, it was announced that there were 344 HIV positive cases in the state. Among these, 170 were men, 162 women and 12 children.
“Nowadays, more people are coming forward to the Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTCs). Hence, we see an increase in the number of cases registered in ART,” Lyngskor said.
From 2002 till this year, 17 ICTCs have been set up across the state.
Lyngskor said apart from coming to the ICTCs, people were also pouring into the eight sexually transmitted disease clinics in all the seven districts.She said from April to October this year, 4,695 patients had come to the STD clinics, and of these 2,616 were referred to the ICTCs as they were suspected cases of HIV.
Of the 2,616 patients, only 56 were found to be HIV positive, Lyngskor said. Tomorrow, MACS will be observing World AIDS Day at Don Bosco Youth Centre, Laitumkhrah.
