Northeast pledges to step up fight against HIV/AIDS

GUWAHATI - Thousands of people in India’s northeast, whose large number of drug users have sparked fears of a worsening AIDS epidemic, pledged Tuesday to step up the fight against HIV by spreading awareness about it.

Schoolchildren, health workers, people living with HIV/AIDS and rehabilitated drug addicts marched through key streets in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura to mark World AIDS Day.

“The slogan this year is Universal Access and Human Rights, highlighting the need for easy availability of medicines for people living with the virus. We are committed to catering to the basic needs and ensuring access to drugs,” Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

“We in Assam are committed to carrying out the theme of the World AIDS Day in letter and spirit,” Sarma told IANS.

Some 2.5 million Indians are HIV positive of which the northeast accounts about 45,000.

“There is a need to make available anti-retroviral drugs more easily. We need more anti-retroviral treatment (ART) centres in Assam,” said Jahnabi Goswami, president of the Indian Network of Positive People.

Goswami is one of the few women in India fighting to raise awareness of the disease and one of an even smaller number to have publicly declared that she is HIV-positive way back in 2001.

“We have to step up the fight against HIV/AIDS and the biggest challenge is to detect some 5,000 people in Assam who could be HIV positive but still not registered,” the minister said.

Assam has about 4,000 registered HIV positive people.

While the northeastern states have a total of about 45,000 HIV-positive people, authorities fear the disease may spread because of the region’s acute drug problem.

India’s northeast borders the heroin-producing Golden Triangle of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand and has high rates of intravenous drug use - a key cause of HIV infection here.

Health workers also emphasised the need to educate sex workers following surveys that suggest most prostitutes in the region were engaging in unprotected sex.

Despite the efforts of NGOs and pressure groups, government agencies in the region have so far not managed to curb either drug addiction or prostitution.