Guwahati: A report of the Union health ministry has said Kamrup (metro) is at the top in the country in terms of presence of long-distance truckers with highest HIV prevalence.
The report, HIV Sentinel Surveillance 2016-17, says conducting a survey at 28 sites across the country in 2017, the National AIDS Control Organisation found nine sites with over one per cent HIV prevalence among long-distance truckers.
Kamrup (metro) in Assam and East Midnapore in Bengal were at the top of the nine sites each registering 2.8 per cent HIV-positive cases among truckers.
The two sites are followed by Bangalore (2 per cent), Purbi Singhbhum (1.86 per cent) in Jharkhand, Nagpur (1.6 per cent), Mumbai (1.2 per cent), Rangareddy (1.6 per cent) in Telangana, Dimapur (1.21 per cent), and Salem (1.2 per cent) in Tamil Nadu.
The survey was conducted among truckers to get an estimate of the epidemic among "bridge population".
Bridge population comprises people who, through close proximity to high-risk groups, are at the risk of contracting HIV.
Another round of surveillance found that Manipur and Nagaland were among the three states in the country with highest prevalence of HIV among men who have sex with men (MSM). It was conducted among 26 states involving 89 sites in 84 districts.
"In total, 12 states recorded an HIV prevalence among MSM above the national average with the highest prevalence recorded in the states of Manipur (8.4 per cent), Nagaland (7.7 per cent) and Karnataka (5.4 per cent)," the report says.
The trend of HIV prevalence among the MSM in Assam and Manipur along with Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu appeared to be "stable to declining but at a higher level".
The report says Meghalaya and Tripura are showing pockets of a growing epidemic. In Meghalaya, pockets of high prevalence have been noted in East Jaintia Hills, West Jaintia Hills and East Khasi Hills districts.
In Mizoram and Manipur, "the high prevalence among high-risk groups points to an epidemic largely fuelled by injecting drug behaviour but also supported through commercial exchange of sex," the report says.
