HIV controlled in Vizag
Rich dividends for awareness programmes
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-09-25 02:48 GMT
Visakhapatnam: Due to serious efforts of medical and health authorities, spread of HIV was controlled in Visakhapatnam district. As a result, the public and sex workers became more aware of HIV than previously. For the past few years around 5 to 6 per cent of the people were tested positive for HIV which has now declined to two per cent. District medical authorities are providing free medicine to around 10,000 patients who are in the first stage of the disease which costs around Rs3,000 per month.
Of the cases registered in Vizag city, around 50 per cent patients belong to Vizag city and around 50 per cent of them are between the age group of 18-45 years. Around 500 children between 14 and 16 years also were affected with the deadly disease. Around 2,500 women are affected with this virus. The authorities have conducted awareness programs for the sex workers and explained how a condom can prevent the spreading of the virus.
As a result, now the sex workers also less affected with the disease than previously. Previously, around 7-8 per cent of these workers were affected with HIV, but now it is controlled to less than two per cent. Apart from this, the transmission of HIV from pregnant mother to new-born baby has also come down.
The authorities have made it mandatory to test all pregnant women, weather they are affected with HIV or not. If the mother is affected with the virus, they will be treated separately to save the child. At present 0.3 per cent of the infants are being affected with the virus.
Additional district medical and health officer Dr R. Ramesh said, “We are taking measures to control the disease. The youth should be cautious about this deadly disease. The virus affected person can improve his life span by using the medicine regularly. We are conducting a number of awareness programmes all over the district to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.”